English Transcript

Cập nhật 25/07/2008 15:23:00

New official figures show Vietnam's annual inflation rate hit 27 percent in July, driven by sharply rising food and fuel costs.

The figure was only a little higher than the previous month, but correspondents say the government's decision earlier this week to increase retail petrol prices more than 30 percent is likely to push inflation still higher.

Other new data estimates Vietnam's trade deficit for the January-July period at 15 billion US dollars as imports surged more than 50 percent.

Earlier this week, the Asian Development Bank warned that Vietnam needed to take decisive measures to avoid the kind of economic meltdown suffered by Thailand in 1997, which triggered the Asian financial crisis.

The ADB forecasts Vietnam's economic growth will slow to 6.5 percent this year...down two per cent from the previous year.