Foreign bank says exports, FDI boost Vietnam's economy in February

Vietnamese economy continued to be boosted by the country's exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) on high demand of world market in February, said Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group in its latest report. According to the report, despite modest positive economic signals, Vietnam's economy could lean steadily on the FDI inflow into the country, high export revenue, growth in production activities of FDI sector as well as stable Vietnamese dong. "We keep the forecast that Vietnam's Gross Domestic Production rate in 2014 will be 5.6 to 5.8 percent and inflation rate will be 7 to 7.5 percent", said ANZ. Assessing about Vietnam's FDI, the bank said FDI continued to be the wall of the economy. In the first two months, production sector received the highest registered capital of 625 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, South Korean companies remained top foreign investors to Vietnam and export and import revenues of Vietnam will increase in the coming time. During January-February period, Vietnam's trade surplus stayed at 244 million U.S. dollars. In February alone, the country's trade deficit was 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. "As the domestic demand remained modest, the import revenue of Vietnam during the period was reasonable", said ANZ. As the FDI and exports continued to grow, Vietnam's foreign exchange reserve will continue to increase, Vietnamese government e-Portal quoted the report as saying Friday.