Vietnam's Economy Expands More Than 7% in First Quarter

(Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s economy continued to post stellar growth in the first quarter, fueled by an export boom.

Gross domestic product rose 7.38 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the General Statistics Office said in Hanoi on Thursday.

Vietnam has outperformed most of its Southeast Asian peers as export growth remained resilient on the back of a global trade recovery last year. And even though the trade outlook has turned more gloomy this year amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, Vietnam expects to sustain growth of about 7 percent.

Other details of the GDP report:

• Exports increased 22 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, while imports rose 13.6 percent
• Consumer prices rose 2.66 percent in March from year earlier

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.