The findings, drawn from a recent business sentiment survey by the , according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance, show that 37.3 per cent of firms anticipate improved performance, while 43.5 per cent expect operations to remain stable. About 19.2 per cent foresee continued difficulties.
Foreign-invested enterprises remain the most optimistic, with 81 per cent predicting stability or improvement. The rates were 79.8 per cent for state-owned enterprises and 80.7 per cent for private domestic firms.
In Ho Chi Minh City, a separate survey by the municipal Statistics Office found that 41.8 per cent of businesses expect production to stay stable in the third quarter, and 33.7 per cent anticipate improvement.
By ownership, 85.7 per cent of state-owned enterprises in the city project better business conditions this quarter, compared to 74.5 per cent for FDI firms and 68.9 per cent for non-state enterprises.
Regarding second-quarter performance, 36 per cent of firms nationwide said business conditions improved from the first quarter. Another 43 per cent reported stable operations, while 21.3 per cent continued to face challenges. In Ho Chi Minh City, nearly 75 per cent of enterprises recorded either improved or steady activity.
According to the NSO, industrial production maintained strong momentum in the second quarter. The Industrial Production Index (IIP) rose by an estimated 10.3 per cent year-on-year, with the manufacturing and processing sector up 12.3 per cent. For the first half of 2025, the IIP increased by an estimated 9.2 per cent, the highest first-half gain since 2020.
The sector’s added value expanded by 8.07 per cent in the first six months, the second-highest rate in the 2020–2025 period after the 8.89 per cent recorded in the same period of 2022. This added 2.64 percentage points to Vietnam’s overall GDP growth.
Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew by 7.52 per cent in the first half, the highest rate for the same period since 2011.
Meanwhile, the country’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), released by S&P Global, stood at 48.9 in June, remaining below the 50-point threshold for the third consecutive month, signalling contraction.
Andrew Harker, economics director for Economic Indicators & Surveys at S&P Global Market Intelligence, attributed the continued contraction to subdued global demand for Vietnamese exports. However, he noted that production output increased for the second consecutive month and that business confidence was gradually improving.