Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs the regular Government meeting in October.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs the regular Government meeting in October. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Before entering the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and members of the Government congratulated comrade Nguyen Van The - member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Transport, who has just been assigned by the Politburo to hold the position of Secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Agencies for the 2020-2025 term.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated the professional capacity and political qualities of Comrade Nguyen Van The; emphasizing that Comrade Nguyen Van The grew up from the grassroots, experienced many positions and positions, and always completed his tasks well. Since holding the position of Minister of Transport, Comrade Nguyen Van The has made many contributions to the development of the transport sector and the Government. The Prime Minister hopes and believes that in his new position, Comrade Nguyen Van The will continue to promote his capacity, experience, and strengths, together with the leaders of the Party Committee of the Central Agencies Bloc, to continue to complete the assigned tasks well.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that exactly one year ago, the Government issued Resolution 128 on safe and flexible adaptation, effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic, both preventing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic and recovering and developing the socio-economy. The 10 months of 2022 have passed, the situation has had many complicated and unpredictable developments, but the socio-economic situation of the whole country has achieved many basic and important results. At the regular meeting in October, the Government analyzed and evaluated the results, lessons learned, assessed the situation, and proposed viewpoints and solutions for direction and management in the following months to achieve the goals set by the Party, the National Assembly, and the Government.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung reports on the socio-economic situation in October. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

The report of Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the world situation is changing rapidly, complicatedly and unpredictably. High inflation and global economic recession are spreading; risks in the world financial and monetary markets are increasing, interest rates and exchange rates are fluctuating strongly. Strategic competition, geopolitical instability, energy security, food security, natural disasters, climate change and extreme weather are becoming increasingly unpredictable, but the socio-economic situation in October and the first 10 months of our country continues to maintain a positive recovery and growth momentum.

Accordingly, the whole country basically maintained macroeconomic stability, controlled inflation, and ensured major balances. The average CPI in the first 10 months increased by 2.89%, equivalent to the same period in 2018-2021; continued to reduce value-added tax, reducing price pressure on businesses and people; proactively managed the prices of electricity, gasoline and essential goods and services managed by the State; maintained energy security, food security, and basically ensured domestic gasoline supply.

The Government has proactively managed monetary policy to adapt to faster and stronger fluctuations in the international market. By October 25, credit increased by 11.48% compared to the end of last year; managed exchange rates in line with market developments, ensured domestic foreign currency demand, maintained room for management, continued to strengthen market confidence, and avoided pressure to shift capital flows out of the Vietnamese market.

Representatives of ministries and government agencies attended the meeting. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

State budget collection in the first 10 months is estimated to reach 103.7% of the estimate, up 16.2% over the same period in 2021. FDI capital continues to be positive, reaching 17.45 billion USD in the first 10 months, up 15.2% over the same period last year. Import-export turnover in October is estimated to increase by 5.7% over the same period last year; in the first 10 months, it reached nearly 616.24 billion USD, up 14.1%, with a trade surplus of 9.4 billion USD in the first 10 months.

Production and business activities continued to recover quite positively. The index of industrial production (IIP) in October increased by 6.3% over the same period last year; the total for the first 10 months is estimated to increase by 9% over the same period last year. Trade and services continued to recover, especially domestic demand. Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in October is estimated to increase by 17.1% over the same period last year; the total for the first 10 months is estimated to increase by 20.2%, excluding price factors, it increased by 16.1%. Tourism continued to recover rapidly, with nearly 2.4 million international arrivals in 10 months, 18.8 times higher than the same period in 2021.

The number of newly registered enterprises in October 2022 increased by 58.3% over the same period last year; in the first 10 months, the number of enterprises entering and re-entering the market reached nearly 178,500 enterprises, an increase of 38.3% over the same period in 2021, 1.3 times higher than the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market.

Notably, the work of taking care of cultural and social development and improving people's lives continued to be done well. National defense and security were ensured, and foreign affairs activities were promoted. The work of preventing and combating COVID-19 and other epidemics continued to be focused on; COVID-19 was still under control, reducing the risk of "overlapping epidemics", which is an important foundation for continuing to recover the economy and society after the pandemic.

Scene of the regular Government meeting in October. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

In addition to the positive results achieved, the economy in the past 10 months has also encountered many difficulties and challenges, especially due to the impact of the increasingly rapid, complicated and unpredictable global and domestic situation; difficulties and challenges are increasingly more numerous than advantages. That is, the growth of both supply and demand factors of the economy, although reaching a high level, has not basically compensated for the decline of the previous year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average level for 10 months is still lower than the same period of the years before the pandemic 2016-2019. There are still many difficulties in the production and business activities of enterprises and the management and operation of the domestic macro economy. The financial and monetary markets and operating policies face increasing pressure due to the continued tightening of monetary policy and interest rate increases by the FED and many countries. Although newly registered FDI has shown signs of recovery in the month, overall for the 10 months it still decreased by 23.7% compared to the same period last year. The domestic petroleum balance still has potential risks, with some petroleum retail stores operating at a low level, and local petroleum shortages in some localities...

VNA continues to update information about the meeting.