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Hanoi Chases 10% Growth as Trade Balance Slips
GDP was reported 8.18% in the first half of 2026, one of the country's strongest showings on record and well ahead of Malaysia's 6% and China's 4.3%. Citi raised its full-year forecast to around 8%. Hanoi still wants at least 10%, which is a pace that might make for uncomfortable comparisons with the Southeast Asian boom before the 1997 financial crisis. Manufacturing was reported to have grown by more than 10%, and investment has kept growing across state, private, and foreign channels. The weak bit is, unfortunately, demand. Household consumption, almost two-thirds of GDP, is only recovering modestly, retail sales are growing more slowly than a year ago, and the goods trade balance slipped into deficit early in 2026 before widening through June.
Read more: Bloomberg (growth warning), VnEconomy (capital policy), VnEconomy (exports)
Hanoi Squeezes Bank Margins as Credit Outpaces Deposits
Agribank, Vietcombank and VietinBank have rolled out a combined $6.8 billion in credit packages priced 1 to 2 points below their normal lending rates, after PM Le Minh Hung told banks to make cuts. The banks are being squeezed from both sides. Credit growth reached nearly 9% by end-July while deposits grew only 5.75%, and system-wide bad debts are near $12 billion, up 17% from December.
Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (bank comments)
Property Swallows a Quarter of the Loan Book
One in four dollars the banking system has lent out is in real estate. Property credit was VND5.146 quadrillion ($196 billion) at the end of June, up 8.3% since December, and grew roughly in line with total credit, which rose 8.98% to VND20.26 quadrillion by end-July. Almost all of the exposure is in medium- and long-term loans, while bad debt in the sector climbed 10.5% even as the system-wide bad debt ratio eased to 3.31%. The State Bank says it will keep directing credit toward its priority sectors, including rental housing and large projects that are expected to have spillover effects.
Read more: VnEconomy
US-Bound Containers Up 8% as China Volumes Drop
US container imports from Asia fell 5.3% from a year earlier in July to 1.82 million TEUs, with China down 7.8% to 944,270 TEUs as importers front-loaded before the next tariff deadline. Vietnam moved the other way, shipping 282,846 TEUs to US ports, up 8.2%, and widening its lead over South Korea, which slipped 1% to 206,089 TEUs. Through the first seven months, the swing is milder. Asian import volumes are down less than 1% to 11.87 million TEUs.
Read more: Port Technology
HCMC Nears FDI Target Five Months Early
Ho Chi Minh City pulled in $9.8 billion in foreign direct investment over the first seven months of 2026, gaining almost 45% on the year and already reaching nearly 90% of its $11 billion full-year goal. Science and technology projects accounted for 467 deals worth $557.7 million, still a sliver of the total but the category which mandarins have been keen to talk up. Manufacturing is keeping pace too, as the processing and manufacturing sector grew 11.2%, ahead of the city's 10.7% industrial production index, as exports notched $57.84 billion.
Read more: VnEconomy
Keppel Pitches HCMC on Data Centers
Keppel's real estate CEO Louis Lim told HCMC Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc that the Singaporean group wants to expand its $4 billion Vietnam portfolio, anchored by Saigon Centre and Saigon Sports City, into data centers and other tech-adjacent sectors. The pitch comes on the heals of G42's $1 billion AI data-center commitment to the city. City officials were doing some pitching of their own, trying to convince Keppel to build next-generation facilities as HCMC tries to cast itself as a regional innovation and digital-economy hub. Keppel also asked for city help clearing investment red tape on existing projects. No figures, no sites and no timelines were discussed alongside the data-center talk.
Read more: The Investor
EVFTA Exporters Face Brussels' Residue Rules
Six years into the Europe-Vietnam FTA, 99% of tariff lines to the EU are duty-free and two-way trade got to almost $74 billion (end-2025). Exporters in Ho Chi Minh City are hearing a less celebratory message, though, because they say the real barrier is now chemistry, not customs. France is using a zero-tolerance policy on pesticide residues, Brussels wants all packaging recyclable by 2030, and coffee, rubber and wood shipments now have to prove their supply chains are deforestation-free.
Read more: Tuoi Tre
Starlink Launches With a 600,000-Terminal Cap
Starlink went live with household plans at $43.30 a month and hardware kits from $331, which are prices well above the sub-$10 mobile broadband most users currently pay for service from Viettel, VNPT or MobiFone. The pilot license caps the network at four gateways and 600,000 terminals, which is only about 2.5% of the market. Regulators are putting the project forward as a gap-filler for maritime areas, remote provinces and emergency response, not as a head-on fight with fiber and/or the mobile telecom incumbents.
Read more: VnEconomy
Carbon Credits Find a Singapore Buyer
Resolution No. 235/NQ-CP activates the Article 6 carbon trading agreement Hanoi and Singapore signed in 2025, clearing emission-reduction projects to sell into Singapore's CIX and ACX exchanges. The Foreign Ministry will do the paperwork for an official start date, but the legal plumbing is complete. Developers working on projects that meet international standards will be able to register credits with a guaranteed cross-border buyer. Singapore firms that might otherwise be facing a carbon tax get a respite from a nearby supplier. Hanoi has not yet published how project approvals will work.
Read more: VnEconomy
Hanoi Puts a Sell-By Date on State Companies
Decision 40/2026/QD-TTg gives ministries until August 31 to file restructuring plans for state-controlled companies from 2026 to 2030. The decree replaces an existing compliance checklist with a financial-efficiency test, meaning land banks, return on equity and future earnings potential will all be count toward valuation in addition to book assets. Land-rich state firms could see valuations move the most dramatically, since Decree 57 now forces the value of yearly leased land-use rights into the calculations.
Read more: Vietnam News
2027 Deadline for Highway EV Chargers
The Department for Roads has given provincial authorities until January 1, 2027 to install charging stations at every expressway rest stop, with at least 10% of parking spaces wired to charge EVs. Provinces are expected to report on progress by August 25. Any rest stop that was operating before October 5, 2024 will be expected to comply, retrofitting existing infrastructure if necessary.
Read more: Vietnam News (charger rules)
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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