The News
Vietnam’s economy soared 7.4% in the third quarter of 2024. The highest growth the country has recorded in two years comes despite the devastation wreaked by September’s Typhoon Yagi, which hit major manufacturing hubs and killed more than 250 people.
However, analysts warned that a slowing US economy could reduce demand for made-in-Vietnam products like laptops and smartphones, hampering Hanoi’s ambition to make Vietnam rich — an aspiration it seemed “well positioned” to meet, The Economist wrote earlier this year.
Vietnam is often seen as the “greatest winner” in the China-US trade war, establishing strategic partnerships with both powers. As the country gears up for a leadership change in 2026, Vietnam “needs to keep reforming,” The Economist argued, if it hopes to combat the effects of geopolitics and a rapidly aging domestic population on its nascent economic boom.