Hanoi GDP on the Rise in First Quarter of 2014

March 25, 2014 Posted by Vietnam Briefing Reading Time: 3 minutes

HANOI – The Hanoi People’s Committee has reported that in the first quarter of 2014, the city’s GDP increased by 6.6 percent year-on-year (Y/Y). The city’s positive growth numbers mirror the growth occurring throughout the country.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the city has also seen positive movement. During the quarter, Hanoi saw 55 newly-granted investment projects. These projects were worth a total of US$38 million.

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However, in March, Hanoi’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by 5.99 percent Y/Y.

Export turnover has also been positive and is expected to amount to around US$2.5 billion, an increase of 9.8 percent Y/Y. In March, export turnover rose 5.4 percent over the previous month.

Import turnover also saw a small increase of 0.2 percent Y/Y – reaching US$5.5 billion.

There were also positive numbers in industrial production. During March, Hanoi’s industrial production development index rose by 4.1 percent Y/Y and by 26.9 percent over the previous month.

Additionally, Hanoi has seen the number of visitors to the city increase by 0.5 percent Y/Y and by 2.3 percent over the previous month. In total, it is estimated that 171,700 visitors came to the city in March. The total visitors for the quarter amounts to around 503,200, a 12.3 percent increase Y/Y.

Tourism numbers throughout Vietnam have seen positive growth over the past year. Vietnam saw over 7.57 million international visitors in 2013, convincingly beating its target of 7.2 million for the year. The figures released by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) represented a rise of 10.6 percent from the 2012 year (6.85 million). Revenues generated from tourism in 2013 came to US$9.4 billion.

These positive results can be attributed in part to a general increase in tourists flocking to Asia — up 6 percent from 2012, according to the UN World Tourism Organization’s estimates. Another reason for the increase is strong growth from emerging markets, particularly Russia and China. Visitors from Russia grew to 298,000 in 2013, representing an impressive 71.1 percent change from the previous year. Russian visitors have been flying to Vietnam in large numbers since they were granted a 15-day visa exemption in 2009, and the Vietnamese government is considering extending this exemption to 30 days.

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