Vietnam is a development success story. Political and economic reforms (Doi Moi) launched in 1986 have transformed Vietnam from one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income below $100, to a lower middle income country within a quarter of a century with per capita income of over $2,000 by the end of 2014. To date, Viet Nam has achieved most and in some cases surpassed a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly with the goals on poverty reduction, education and gender equality.
Over the last few decades, Vietnam has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty. The percentage of people living in poverty dropped from almost 60% in the 1990s to less than 3% today. Vietnam’s growth rate has averaged 6.4% per year for the last decade, but it has begun to slow recently. In 2014, GDP growth was 6 %, projected to flatten in 2015 and start to pick up in 2016. Vietnam has managed to improve macroeconomic stability, with headline inflation falling from a peak of 23% in August 2011 to about 4.1% for 2014.