European business confidence in Vietnam’s investment environment continued to rise at the start of 2022, says the business climate index (BCI) from the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) conducted by YouGov. For the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, the index climbed to 73 points, once again reaching its highest point after the fourth wave of the pandemic.
This is a 12-point increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, in addition to nearly 58 points of growth compared to the third quarter, with business leaders now more upbeat after the relaxation of Vietnam’s pandemic-related restrictions and the continued acceleration of its economic development, EuroCham Vietnam said.
European business leaders are generally showing increasingly improving attitudes towards the prospective growth of Vietnam’s economy as well. More than two-thirds of respondents now believe that the Vietnamese economy is more likely to stabilise and improve in the second quarter of 2022, compared to 58 percent who held this view in the fourth quarter of 2021.
This far exceeds the 5 per cent of respondents who anticipate economic deterioration for the next quarter.
European business stakeholders also indicated ambitious second quarter projections for their companies, especially when compared to projections made for the first quarter. Nearly 66 per cent of respondents are expecting increased revenue for the second quarter of the year, compared to 52 per cent three months earlier.
Likewise, more than 46 per cent of respondents are forecasting headcount increases for next quarter.
The BCI is a regular barometer of European business leaders and investors. This research was first conducted in 2013 and has been carried out by YouGov since 2020.
