HANOI: Vietnam’s annual inflation rate edged up to 4.44 per share in May, official data showed on Wednesday, nearing the government’s target canopy of 4.5 per cent for the year and a potential problem to efforts to boost credit development to generate action.
The Southeast Asian nation, a local business hub, even experienced strong export and industrial output growth in the month, but rising inflation may be a source of concern for authorities.
Customer prices had risen 4.4 per share in April from a year earlier, and rose 3.25 per cent in 2023.
Vietnam is targeting monetary expansion of 6.0 per share- 6.5 per share this month, faster than an expansion of 5.05 per cent last year.
The State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, has a 15 % credit development goal to help them meet it, but banks have struggled to raise their lending this year.
State media cited the central banks as saying on Tuesday that the total outstanding debts of businesses as of May 10 had increased 1.95 % from the close of last year.
Exports are estimated to have increased 15.8 % per cent in May from a year earlier to$ 32.81 billion, in part thanks to shipments of electronics and smartphones, according to the General Statistics Office ( GSO )’s ) data released on Wednesday.
Imports in the month are estimated to have grown an annual 29.9 per cent to$ 33.81 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of$ 1 billion for May, the GSO said.
Shipments of smartphones in May are estimated to have risen 50.6 per cent from a year earlier to$ 4.4 billion, while electronics exports rose 31.5 per cent to$ 5.9 billion.
According to the GSO, industrial output increased by an annual 8.9 % and retail sales increased by 9.5 %.