The European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam’s Business Confidence Index for the fourth quarter of 2024 has recorded a jump of 15.5 points over the third quarter of the year. It should be noted, however, that the number of respondents was well below average for the year and given the time of year the results may be skewed.
More specifically, whereas the number of respondents for each quarterly survey averaged 230 (about 9.08 percent), that number fell to 185 (about 7.1 percent) in the fourth quarter. With the survey carried out over the last two weeks of the quarter and that being the Western hemisphere’s Christmas break, it could be that the number of European respondents fell disproportionately to local respondents. This would give the views of the Vietnamese respondents more weight.
With this in mind, those views tend to be skewed more positive by virtue of the fact that Vietnamese stand to gain from increased foreign investment and that they have greater exposure to Vietnamese press which is by law required to pursue the interests of the state, in this case promoting foreign investment.
Moreover, the report credits the improved optimism to the government restructuring of the ‘organizational apparatus’, however, this shouldn’t really impact foreign firms at all–The report doesn’t elaborate on this explanation.
Ergo, these results should be taken with a grain of salt.
See also: Vietnam’s Economy in 2024: A Brief Recap