ShareHANOI: Vietnam announced on Saturday its economy grew 7.52 percent in the first half of 2025, the highest in more than a decade as exports soared. The strong growth figure comes just days after southeast Asian manufacturing hub averted the most punishing of US President Donald Trump’s threatened “reciprocal” tariffs on its exports.
“GDP in the first six months of 2025 increased by 7.52 percent over the same period last year, the highest level of the first six months in the period 2011-2025,” the General Statistics Office said in a statement. The country achieved growth of 7.96 percent in the second quarter over the same period last year, the highest Q2 reading since 2022 when it hit 8.56 percent.
“Our country’s socio-economic performance in the second quarter and the first six months of 2025 achieved very positive results, approaching the set target in the context of many uncertainties in the world and regional economy,” the GSO statement said. Vietnam—a global manufacturing hub—recorded economic growth of 7.1 percent last year and is aiming for eight percent this year as it vies for “middle-income country” status by 2030. The nation has the third-biggest trade surplus with the United States of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Trump’s tariff blitz.
Hanoi’s trade deal with Washington announced this week has negotiated levies down from an eye-watering 46 percent to a minimum 20 percent in return for opening its market to US products.
However the rate is around five times more than before Trump’s second term, according to Bloomberg Economics, and the pact contains a clause seeding more uncertainty about vital supply chains with China. Trump says a 40 percent tariff will hit goods passing through Vietnam to circumvent steeper trade barriers targeting their nation of origin—a practice called “transshipping”.
Washington has accused Hanoi of using the practice to gate Beijing’s products to American markets, but Chinese raw materials are also the lifeblood of Vietnam’s manufacturing industries. In its outlook for Vietnam published Friday, Fitch Solutions said there were upside risks to its 2025 Vietnam GDP growth forecast of 6.4 percent as exports and investments remained strong. The United States is Vietnam’s largest export market, worth $70.91 billion in the first half of the year.
In the first six months of 2025, Vietnam’s total goods exports reached $219.83 billion, up 14.4 percent over the same period last year, the GSO said, with processed industrial goods accounting for almost 90 percent of that.
The statistics office said the reorganization of the country’s government apparatus last month which saw most of its provinces and cities merged had been part of its efforts towards socio-economic development. — AFP
