Vietnam, Despite Low Coronavirus Caseload, Will Take Months to Recover Economically
Vietnam has reported few new coronavirus cases every day since mid-April. Now schools are reopening, smaller restaurants are back in business and traffic jams are forming again in the financial center, Ho Chi Minh City, as commuters head to work.
The Southeast Asian country has controlled its coronavirus caseload at just 271 across a 96 million population by quickly sealing off the border with China where the global outbreak began, quarantining tens of thousands of people and tracing the contacts of known cases.
The phased-in reopening that’s now in progress will stimulate some demand as people get back to earning money following job losses and work furloughs in April, experts in the country predict. But Vietnam’s once booming economy won’t approach pre-COVID-19 disease outbreak growth levels until at least the second half of 2020 because of a continued lack of foreign tourists and a dearth of export demand from overseas, they say.
Ralph Jennings
