Economy of Vietnam

Economy of Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital of Vietnam
CurrencyVietnamese đồng (VND; ₫)
Calendar year
Trade organisations
AFTA, WTO, APEC, ASEAN, RCEP, CPTPP, FAO
Country group
Statistics
Population 101,598,527 (2025)[4]
GDP
GDP rank
GDP growth
7.09% (2024)[6]

5.8% (2025)[7]

4% (2026)[8]
GDP per capita
  • $4,806 (nominal; 2025 est.)[5]
  • $17,484 (PPP; 2025 est.)[5]
GDP per capita rank
  • 119th (nominal; 2025)
  • 104th (PPP; 2025)
GDP by sector
  • Agriculture: 11%
  • Industry: 38.1%
  • Services: 42.5%
  • (2023 est.)[9]
Inflation (CPI)
3.45% (Nov 2023)[10]
Population below poverty line
  • 22% on less than $8.30/day (2022)[11]
36.1 medium (2022)[12]
  • 0.766 high (2023)[13] (93th)
  • 0.641 medium IHDI (75rd) (2023)[13]
Corruption Perceptions Index
40 out of 100 points (2024, 88th rank)
Labour force
  • 57,249,411 (2019)[14]
  • 74.7% employment rate (2018)[15]
Labour force by occupation
  • Agriculture: 27.5%
  • Industry: 33.4%
  • Services: 39%
  • (2022)[16]
Unemployment
  • 3.3% (2020 est.)[10]
  • 6.9% youth unemployment (15 to 24 year-olds; 2019)[17]
Average gross salary
₫ 7,600,000 / $300 monthly (Q1 2024)[18]
Main industries
Electronics, machinery, steel, food processing, wood industry, textile, footwear, vehicle, rice, coffee, cashews, seafood, vegetable and tourism
External
Exports$405.5 billion (2024)[19]
Export goods
Electronics, textiles products, machinery, footwear products, transportation products, wooden products, seafood products, steel, crude oil, pepper, rice and coffee
Main export partners
Imports$380.8 billion (2024)[20]
Import goods
Machinery and industrial equipment, electronics, petroleum products, raw materials for the clothing and shoe industries, plastics, automobiles, metal, and chemical products
Main import partners
FDI stock
  • $129.5 billion (31 December 2017 est.)[21]
  • Abroad: $19.75 billion (31 December 2015 est.)[21]
Current account
$5.401 billion (2017 est.)[21]
Gross external debt
$96.58 billion (31 December 2017 est.)[21]
Public finances
Government debt
37% of GDP (2023 est.)[22][note 1]
Foreign reserves
$86.4 billion (Feb 2023 est.)[23]
−6.7% (of GDP) (2017 est.)[21]
Revenues54.59 billion (2017 est.)[21]
Expenses69.37 billion (2017 est.)[21]
Economic aid$2.174 billion (2016)
Credit rating
Standard & Poor's:[24]
BB+ (domestic)
BB+ (foreign)
BB+ (T&C assessment)
Outlook: stable[25]
Moody's:[25]
Ba2
Outlook: Stable
Fitch:[25]
BB+
Outlook: stable
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

The economy of Vietnam is a developing mixed socialist-oriented market economy.[3] It is the 33rd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the 26th-largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is an upper-middle income country with a low cost of living. Vietnam is a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the World Trade Organization.

Since the mid-1980s, through the Đổi Mới reform period, Vietnam has made a shift from a highly centralized planned economy to a mixed economy. Before, South Vietnam was reliant on U.S. aid,[26] while North Vietnam and reunified Vietnam relied on communist aid until the Soviet Union's dissolution.[27]

The economy uses both directive and indicative planning through five-year plans, with support from an open market-based economy. Over that period, the economy has experienced rapid growth. In the 21st century, Vietnam is in a period of being integrated into the global economy. Almost all Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Vietnam has become a leading agricultural exporter and served as an attractive destination for foreign investment in Southeast Asia.

According to a forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers in February 2017, Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world's economies, with a potential annual GDP growth rate of about 5.1 percent, which would make its economy the 10th-largest in the world by 2050.[28] Vietnam has also been named among the so-called Next Eleven and CIVETS countries.

  1. ^ "WEO Groups and Aggregates Information April 2020". World Economic and Financial Surveys World Economic Outlook Database. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  2. ^ "World Bank Country and Lending Groups". World Bank. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Cling, Jean-Pierre; Razafindrakoto, Mireille; Roubaud, Francois (Spring 2013). "Is the World Bank compatible with the "Socialist-oriented market economy"?". Revue de la régulation: Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs. 13 (13). doi:10.4000/regulation.10081.
  4. ^ General Statistics Office of Vietnam (2023). Niên giám Thống kê Việt Nam năm 2022 [Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam 2022] (PDF). Statistical Publishing House (Vietnam). p. 103. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-07-10. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  5. ^ a b c d . International Monetary Fund https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/profile/VNM. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ^ "The outlook is uncertain again amid financial sector turmoil, high inflation, ongoing effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and three years of COVID". International Monetary Fund. April 11, 2023.
  7. ^ "Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is forecast to moderate to 5.8% in 2025 due to increased trade policy uncertainty, according to the World Bank (WB)'s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update". VneExpress International. April 15, 2025.
  8. ^ "In the long-term, the Vietnam GDP Annual Growth Rate is projected to trend around four percent in 2026". International Monetary Fund. April 2025.
  9. ^ "Vietnam". CIA World Factbook.
  10. ^ a b "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2022". IMF.org. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  11. ^ "Poverty headcount ratio at $8.30 a day (2021 PPP) (% of population) - Vietnam". World Bank. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  12. ^ "GINI index (World Bank estimate)". World Bank. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Human Development Report 2025". United Nations Development Programme. 6 June 2025.
  14. ^ "Labor force, total - Vietnam". World Bank. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Employment to population ratio, 15+, total (%) (national estimate) - Vietnam". World Bank. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  16. ^ General Statistics Office of Vietnam (2023). Niên giám Thống kê Việt Nam năm 2022 [Statistical Yearbook of Vietnam 2022] (PDF). Statistical Publishing House (Vietnam). pp. 99–100. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-07-10. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  17. ^ "Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (national estimate) - Vietnam". World Bank & ILO. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Report on Labor Force Survey Quarter 1 2024". Vietnam General Statistics Office. First Quarter 2024.
  19. ^ a b General Department of Vietnam Customs (2024). Statistics of Exports by Country/Territory (PDF). General Department of Vietnam Customs. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  20. ^ a b General Department of Vietnam Customs (2024). Statistics of Imports by Country/Territory (PDF). General Department of Vietnam Customs. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g "The World Factbook". CIA.gov. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  22. ^ "Viet Nam's public debt falls to 37% in 2023". National Institute for Finance. 1 January 2024.
  23. ^ "Vietnam Foreign Exchange Reserves". CEIC. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  24. ^ "Sovereigns rating list". Standard & Poor's. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  25. ^ a b c Rogers, Simon; Sedghi, Ami (15 April 2011). "How Fitch, Moody's and S&P rate each country's credit rating". Reuters. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
  26. ^ Shriek, David K. (27 January 1974). "South Vietnam, a U. S. Subsidiary". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  27. ^ Prybyla, Jan S. (1966). "Soviet and Chinese Economic Aid to North Vietnam". The China Quarterly. 27. Cambridge University Press: 84–100. doi:10.1017/S0305741000021706.
  28. ^ "The World in 2050" (PDF). PricewaterhouseCoopers. February 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2017.


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