The second quarter of 2024 saw Vietnam attaining higher-than-expected economic growth. What fueled this strong recovery? Q2 growth drivers Having grown by 5.66% in the first quarter, GDP in the second quarter continued to expand by 6.93% year-on-year, bringing the first-half GDP growth to 6.42%. This is slightly below the 6.58% growth in the first half of 2022 during the 2020-2024 period. This is quite an unexpected result given the challenges the Vietnamese economy has been facing. The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector remained a significant driver. While total investments in the economy in the first half rose by 6.8% year-on-year, the FDI sector alone recorded a 10.3% spike in investments, and raised the proportion of its investments in the economy’s total to 17.9%. This is a predictable trend as FDI inflows in the first half of this year amounted to US$10.84 billion, up by 8.2% versus the same period last year, the highest first-half rise since 2020. However, the most surprising driver might be the strong reemergence of the private domestic sector. While Q1 investments of this sector increased by just 4.2% year-on-year, below the 4.9% increase in the public sector, Q2 saw a 7.9% increase, taking the H1 […]