First-quarter growth is likely to reach 7.41 per cent

The tourism sector would increase by 60 per cent while total trade will expand 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 over the same period last year, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc informed overseas Vietnamese in Auckland during an official visit to New Zealand on March 12.

GDP growth of 7.41 per cent, if achieved, will be the highest growth rate in Q1 for many years, and significantly higher than that of the same period last year (5.15 per cent). The PM also said Vietnam could reach a trade surplus of nearly US$2 billion in the same period.

Last week, National Centre for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast (NCIF), Ministry of Planning and Investment, also anticipated that Vietnam's economic growth in 2018 will continue to expand thanks to robust manufacturing, construction, trade, wholesale and retail, banking and tourism.

According to the centre's forecast, Vietnam's GDP growth rate in 2018 could reach 6.83 per cent, up from 6.81 per cent from 2017.

After the visit to New Zealand, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc will visit Australia to attend the ASEAN-Australia Summit in Sydney this weekend.

The visit took place right after 11 countries namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on March 9.