Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’sGross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.08 percent in 2018, the highest in thepast 11 years, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on December 27.

GSO Director General Nguyen BichLam said at a press conference that the growth rate well surpassed the targetof 6.7 percent, and was the result of the strong leadership of the Government,the Prime Minister and the efforts of agencies, administrations at all levels,the business community and people nationwide.

According to Lam, theagri-forestry-fishery sector posted an expansion of 3.76 percent andcontributed 8.7 percent to the overall growth.

The industry-construction sectorrecorded an 8.85 percent increase and contributed 48.6 percent to the GDP growth,while the figures for the services sector were 7.03 percent and 42.7 percent,respectively.

The export of commodities andservices picked up by 14.27 percent and the import of commodities and serviceswent up 12.81 percent.

The growth of theagri-forestry-fishery sector was the highest in seven years, proving the positiveeffects of restructuring, particularly in agriculture and aquaculture. The structureof food crops has been changed towards high-quality rice varieties and productionunder VietGap standards. Despite a decrease in area, rice output increased by1.24 million tonnes on a yearly basis to reach an estimated 43.98 milliontonnes. The output of aquaculture also rose by 6.7 percent, reaching 4.2million tonnes of aquatic products.

In the industry-constructionsector, the manufacturing-processing industry continued to be the driving forcewith a growth of 12.98 percent, which was lower than the level in 2017 but muchhigher than the rates during 2012-2016.

Meanwhile, the mining sectorwitnessed a minus growth for the third consecutive year with a contraction of 3.11percent, showing that the Vietnamese economy no longer depends on theexploitation of minerals and natural resources.

The 7.03 percent growth of theservice sector was also higher than the expansion rate from 2012-2016, withmarket services such as retail and wholesale contributing a large proportion tothe rise in GDP. Total goods and service retail value this year was about 4,395.7trillion VND (approximately 190 billion USD at current exchange rate), up 11.7percent from last year.

The GSO noted that the national economy’sscale in 2018 has doubled that in 2011 to reach 5,535.3 trillion VND at currentprices. Per capita GDP this year is estimated at 58.5 million USD (2,587 USD),up 198 USD compared to 2017.

The economic structure continuedto shift towards higher proportion of industry-construction and services, whichmade up 34.28 percent and 41.17 percent of the national GDP, respectively.Agriculture-forestry-fishery accounted for 14.57 percent.-VNA