Vietnam's economy remains outperformer as growth tops 7% mark

[HANOI] Vietnam's growth accelerated in the fourth quarter, as stronger manufacturing output helped the economy remain one of the world's best performers.

Gross domestic product grew 7.3 per cent in the three months through December from a year earlier, and was up from a revised 6.82 per cent in the previous quarter, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi Thursday. Growth for the full year was 7.1 per cent, compared with the median estimate of 6.9 percent in a Bloomberg survey of 12 economists.

The country's economic growth is being buoyed by robust domestic demand, and increases in exports, manufacturing and foreign investment.

The government is taking advantage of the US-China trade tensions to boost the nation's profile as a manufacturing and export powerhouse, selling everything from shoes to smartphones. Trade accounts for about twice the nation's gross domestic product - more than any country in Asia apart from Singapore.

"Vietnam is poised to capture some of China's global market share in labor-intensive manufacturing," according to Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist at Natixis Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. "It's the clear winner from the trade war."

BLOOMBERG