The country has long been one of Asia’s fastest growing economies — GDP growth topped 5% over the past five years — largely driven by the exports of cheap manufactured goods, from Nike shoes to H&M T-shirts, as well as tech products like Samsung phones and Intel computer processors.
But this year’s growth surpassed the communist government’s target of 6.7%, hitting 7.08%, according to figures released on Dec. 27 by the General Statistics Office in Hanoi.
