He said Vietnam’s stock market will beencouraged by a slight earning per share growth rate of 10 – 12 percent in2019. However, this rate is still lower than in previous years, so the marketis unlikely to grow strongly this year.
He forecast a bright prospect for thecountry’s economy in 2019 with positive foreign direct investment (FDI) inflowas manufacturers will come to Vietnam to supply products to mobile phoneproducer Samsung or car maker Vinfast and avoid the trade war’s impact.
The economy is likely to gain a trade surplusas exports are predicted to increase more sharply than imports. Meanwhile, theVietnamese dong will stay stable as the central bank has abundant forexreserves and US dollar supply and demand is not too tense thanks to trade andfiscal surplus, Ho said.
The VinaCapital director said Vietnam willcontinue to attract FDI in 2019 thanks to competitive labour costs, improvedlabour quality and the proximity to supply chains of regional manufacturers.
Notably, the US-China trade tension is alsoconsidered a stimulus for the redirection of the FDI inflow from China and someother markets to Vietnam, he added.-VNA