While the consumer price index (CPI) was stable in January, it surged sharply in February but in the first two months as a whole, this index reached a record low in comparison with the same periods prior to 2014. The positive signal showed that the CPI for 2016 would be kept under 5% and become the third year with low CPI growth. This low inflation rate would create favorable ways for the market, consumers, producers, and policy makers.
FDI to Vietnam in the Jan-Feb, 2016 surged both registered number (US$2.8 billion, up 135%) and disbursed number (US$1.5 billion, up 15.4%). In spite of a sharp decline in export, the FDI sector continued to pocket higher year-on-year trade surplus with US$2.962 billion.
Trade balance shifted from a deficit with over US$1.413 billion in the first two months of 2015 and US$3.538 billion in 2015 to a surplus of US$865 million in January-February, 2016. Even though, the domestic sector suffered from a trade gap but less seriously (from US$2.849 billion to US$2.097 billion). Trade gap with China also shrank from US$5.2 billion to US$4.7 billion. Meanwhile, Viet Nam ran larger trade surplus with the U.S from US$3.4 billion to US$ 4.1 billion; with the EU from US$2.65 billion to US$3.4 billion.
The domestic sector occupied 30.1% of national export turnover, higher than the rate of 29.7% last year. So far, 29 commodities earned over US$100 million of export turnover.
In the first two months of the year, the number of foreign visitors to Viet Nam went up 16% against the same period last year. Overseas remittances also contributed remarkably to the balance of payment, foreign reserve, and macro-economic growth.
