VINACHEM

Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to grow by 5.93 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2016, said the General Statistics Office (GSO) on Thursday.

Specifically, in the first quarter of this year, the country's GDP expanded 5.48 percent while it hiked 5.78 percent in the second quarter and 6.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter.

"However, the GDP expansion in the nine-month period remains lower than that of 6.53 percent in the same period last year. This was attributed to continuous decline in the industry and mining while growth of agriculture stays lower than that of the same period last year," said Nguyen Bich Lam, GSO head.

According to the office, among the 5.93-percent growth of Vietnam's GDP in January-September period, agro-forestry-fishery sector expands 0.65 percent year-on-year, registering the lowest growth in the past six years, contributing 0.11 percentage points to the GDP increase.

At the same time, the industry-construction sector is likely to climb 7.5 percent year-on-year, contributing 2.52 percentage points while the service sector rises 6.66 percent year-on-year, contributing 2.55 percentage points to the GDP growth, said GSO on its website.

Despite experiencing the highest growth among three sectors, the industry-construction is also facing numerous difficulties, said GSO.

Earlier, Vietnam targeted to see GDP growth of 6.7 percent in 2016.

Last year, the country's GDP growth reached 6.68 percent compared to the previous year, the highest level in the past five years, according to the GSO. - Xinhua