Officials of the Ministry said that the fourth rebound of the disease at the end of April and the subsequent confinement measures affected severely production, retail trade and services in general, particularly those associated to tourism.

They explained that national economy grew 5.22% between September and December, 4.61% higher than during the same period in 2020, but well below when compared to 2011 and 2019.

The sectors of Forestry and Aquaculture, the Industry and Services contributed the most to GDP, even though they experienced modest growth.

In 2020, when the pandemic exercise less pressure, the Vietnamese economy grew somewhat lower than 3%. The National Assembly stated during its last period of sessions that the index is expected to be in the range of 6.0-6.5% for 2022.

The Parliament considered that the goal is achievable owing to the adoption of a safe and flexible strategy of adaptation of the economic and social life to Covid-19, the permanent renovation of the country’s model of development and the proven resilience capability of Vietnam’s economy, in addition to the policy of support to business sector and the advances of an accelerated vaccination campaign centered in achieving collective immunity against the disease.

pgh/mem/asg