VINACHEM

Vietnam’s economy is likely to bottom out in 2013 unless more effective measures are taken, said the Vietnam Academy of Social Science (VASS).

Its January report, based on economic growth rates in the 1989-2012 period, showed the national economy experienced its slowdown in 1989, 1993, 1999, 2003 and 2009.

Regarding the gloomy picture of economic growth in 2013, the VASS stressed the need for medium and long-term plans to ensure economic growth in a more balanced and sustainable manner by taking into account fluctuations on both local and global markets.

There are three scenarios for Vietnam’s economic growth, of which the most likely one forecasts the growth rate at 5.3 percent, the inflation rate at 7.3, and the unemployment rate at 3.85 percent.

The VASS recommended that the Government should help businesses iron out their snags by reducing the corporate and value added taxes and lowering interest rates on loans to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due attention should also be paid to implementing fiscal policy on agriculture and rural development, it added.