HANOI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese manufacturing business sentiment is set to rise in the third quarter on the back of the country's unexpectedly higher economic growth in the second quarter and an optimistic outlook for the year, Vietnam News reported Friday, citing the latest survey by the General Statistics Office.
About 82.9 percent of businesses in the survey expect improved or stable business activities in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. In comparison, 17.1 percent foresee greater difficulties.
This marked an improvement compared to the previous survey, where 77.6 percent of businesses forecast more favorable or stable production and business activities and 27.1 percent predict greater difficulties.
In the second quarter, the two major challenges for the manufacturing and processing industry are "low domestic market demand" and "high competition from domestic products," with 53.4 percent and 50.4 percent of enterprises identifying these issues, respectively, said the survey.
Vietnam's economy grew by 6.93 percent in the second quarter and 6.42 percent in H1, according to the office. ■
