HANOI, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) --- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday forecast a downward revision in Vietnam's economic growth in 2016.
In the Asian Development Outlook Update 2016 released by ABD on Tuesday, the bank forecast Vietnam's economic growth at 6 percent in 2016 and 6.3 percent in 2017 due to contractions in the agriculture and mining sectors in the first half (H1) of the year.
"In H1, drought in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and Central Highlands regions as well as low global commodity prices eased economic growth, but other sectors have grown strongly," said Eric Sidgwick, ADB Country Director for Vietnam.
For the second half of the year, the report made a prediction that Vietnam's economic growth is expected to rise thanks to further increases in foreign direct investment and exports, domestic credit growth, a slight recovery in agriculture and accelerating disbursements of capital expenditure on national infrastructure programs.
However, although Vietnamese economy is performing reasonably well against a challenging backdrop, a number of issues need to be addressed to ensure sustainable growth including tightening regulations to prevent a rise in financial sector risks, easing public debt pressures by a rationalization of recurrent expenditure and tightening of the public sector wage bill, the report stressed.
Earlier, Vietnam has set a 6.7 percent economic growth target in 2016.
