Economic growth quickens in Q2

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Total economic output in the first half of 2014 rose by an estimated by 5.18% over the same period last year.

A breakdown of economic sectors shows that the service sector made the biggest contribution to first-half growth with 2.57 percentage points, followed by industry, which contributed 2.06 percentage points.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing made a small contribution of 0.55% to GDP growth in the first six months of 2014.

Industrial production in Q2 surged by 5.8% against the same period last year, primarily driven by a 7.8% increase in manufacturing and 10.9% rise in power generation and distribution.

Earlier, the GSO also reported that CPI accelerated slightly to 4.98% in June in which medicine and healthcare costs saw the biggest one-month increase of 0.74%.

In the first half of 2014, Viet Nam recorded a trade surplus of US$1.3 billion with exports and imports estimated at US$70.9 billion and US$69.6 billion./.

By Khanh Phuong