Is Ho Chi Minh City in Decline?
In the short term: yes
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On to the news.
As we approach the midpoint of the year, it is abundantly clear that Vietnam’s economic heart is in serious trouble.
This reality has prompted an unplanned series of articles here at Vietnam Weekly in part because I live in Ho Chi Minh City, but also because the city’s fortunes have an outsized impact on the country.
Back in March, I wrote about how the city administration had distributed 0.5% of its US$3 billion budget for the year through January and February.
In early April, we learned that HCMC’s Q1 gross regional domestic product growth was just 0.7%, far lower than the other four centrally governed cities and provinces and well below the national rate of 3.3%.
By the start of May, the city’s public disbursal rate for 2023 had only reached 4%, one of the worst figures in the country.
Have things improved since then?