Fitch raises sovereign rating for Vietnam

Bloomberg cited Fitch's announcement on May 15 that shows the rating on the nation’s long-term, foreign currency-denominated debt was raised one level to BB, with a stable outlook. The upgrade puts Vietnam at the second-highest speculative grade and on par with Costa Rica.

The rating agency also forecast that Vietnam's foreign reservices would increase to about US$66 billion by the end of this year from US$49 billion in 2017, while general government debt is likely to decline to below 50% of gross domestic product by 2019.

According to Fitch, the country's economy can expand 6.7% this year.

Most economic forecasts since early April said Vietnam’s GDP growth will be 6.5% or higher in 2018.

On an annual credit analysis released on April 3, Moody’s Investors Service said that Vietnam’s real GDP growth will remain robust, averaging 6.7% in 2018.

Meanwhile, the World Bank (WB) on April 12 forecast Vietnam’s economic growth to stabilise around 6.5% in 2018.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Vietnam’s economy to grow by 6.6% this year and 6.5% the following year in its report namely “World Economic Outlook, April 2018”.

Vietnam’s economy enjoyed a strong economic expansion of 7.38% in the first quarter of this year, the best first-quarter performance in the last decade, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.