VIETNAM’S DOMESTIC DEMAND WOES CONTINUE

HANOI - GDP growth for Q1 has come in at 4.9% y/y, below market expectations of 5.2% and lower than the Q4 figure of 5.5%. Industry and construction growth slowed to 4.9% in Q1 from 6.7%, while services growth fell to 5.7% from 6.9%. Agriculture, fishery and forestry grew 2.2% compared to a fall of 0.5% previously. Domestic activity continued to give weak signals, particularly retail sales, but March exports and (surprisingly) imports performed well.