Vietnam Aims to Achieve 2009 Growth of More Than 5%

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam will boost production and exports in an effort to exceed the government’s 5 percent economic growth forecast this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in a statement on the government’s Web site.

The economy has avoided a recession and is “in a growing trend,” Dung said in the statement posted late yesterday. Gross domestic product expanded 4.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier after gaining 3.1 percent the previous three months, the government said last week.

Dung said in April Vietnam plans stimulus measures that the government values at about $8 billion to bolster growth. Ministries and companies have to use the packages more effectively in the second half to help the country meet its targets, he said in yesterday’s statement.

Vietnam will try to prevent inflation from accelerating to more than 8 percent at the end of this year, government office chief Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in another statement, also posted on the government’s Web site late yesterday.

The nation’s banking system lent a combined 372.3 trillion dong ($21 billion) to businesses as part of the government’s loan-subsidy program as of July 2, the central bank reported July 3. Vietnam posted credit growth of 17 percent in the six months ended June compared with the end of last year, the central bank said yesterday.