Vietnam: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper: Annual Progress Report: Joint Staff Advisory Note

This paper presents a Joint Staff Advisory Note on Vietnam’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. GDP growth accelerated to 7.7 percent despite several exogenous shocks, including the outbreak of avian influenza and a sharp rise in the price of key imported commodities. However, an adverse consequence of these supply shocks has been a sharp rise in inflation, which tested the government’s macroeconomic policymaking ability. The rapid growth of credit is of concern because of a potential accumulation of nonperforming loans of state-owned commercial banks that could ultimately become a fiscal burden and threaten medium-term debt sustainability.