The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has maintained its favourable economic outlook for Vietnam as it forecasts the country's gross domestic product to expand 6.5% in 2022 and 6.7% in 2023, based on the update of its flagship economic report released on September 21.

According to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), ADB Country Director for Vietnam Andrew Jeffries commented that Vietnam's economy recovered faster than expected in the first half of 2022 and continues to grow amid the challenging global environment.

The steady recovery was supported by strong economic fundamentals and driven by a faster-than-expected bounce back of manufacturing and services, he held.

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO) Update 2022 says Vietnam's economy is performing reasonably well amid uncertainties in the global economy. Restored global food supply chains will boost agriculture production this year, but high input costs will still constrain the recovery of the agriculture sector, it said.

Softening global demand has slowed manufacturing. The manufacturing purchasing managers' index in August softened to 52.7 from 54.0 in June. However, the outlook for the manufacturing sector remains bullish given strong foreign direct investments in the sector.