Vietnam’s economy accelerates in nine months Vietnam’s economy witnessed positive changes in the first nine months of 2017 with growth increasing from quarter to quarter, according to Director General of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Bich Lam.    Vietnam’s economy accelerates in nine months (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)  Gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter expanded by 5.15 percent, the second quarter 6.28 percent, and the third quarter 7.46 percent – the highest level since 2011, Lam said. Contributing to the country’s overall economic growth of 6.41 percent in January-September was the processing and manufacturing industry – which posted a growth rate of 12.8 percent, the services sector 7.25 percent, and the agricultural sector 2.78 percent. International tourists arrivals in Vietnam in the nine months remained high with more than 9.4 million arrivals, a year-on-year rise of 28.4 percent. The tourism sector hopes to welcome 13 million foreign visitors in 2017. January-September growth was also buoyed by exports, which climbed 19.8 percent compared to the same period last year (6.7 percent) to an estimated 154 billion USD, exceeding the year’s target of seven percent. In the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 by the World Economic Forum, Vietnam jumped to 55th place, up five spots from last year and 20 from five years ago. Vietnam also leapt nine notches to 82nd out of the 190 economies in the “Doing Business 2016: Equal Opportunity for All” report by the World Bank, maintaining fifth position in ASEAN. In the first nine months of 2017, Vietnam attracted 25.5 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI), a year-on-year rise of 34.3 percent, while 12.5 billion USD of FDI was disbursed, up 13.4 percent year-on-year. As many as 93,967 new enterprises were established with a total registered capital of 902.7 trillion VND (about 39.7 billion USD), up 15.4 percent in number and 43.5 percent in capital.  Inflation was held below four percent, while core inflation averaged 1.45 percent up to September and is forecast to approximate 1.5-1.8 percent this year, below the target assigned by the National Assembly. VNA