Most large enterprises contacted in a latest survey of Vietnam Report Company said that the local economy would not recover next year and the situation would only get better from 2014.

According to the survey on the 2013 economic outlook through the eyes of leading enterprises, only 33% of respondents thought that the economy would recover in the second half of next year, while only 1% believed that the economy would be better in the next six months.

The belief in an economic recovery of leading enterprises has fallen compared to August, when up to 60% of enterprises said that the economic situation would improve in 2013 or sooner.

To conduct this survey, Vietnam Report Company reached 192 corporate representatives in the top 1,000 corporate taxpayers (V1000), top 500 largest companies in Vietnam (VNR500) and top 500 businesses achieving the fastest growth (FAST500).

Besides, up to 50% corporate leaders said that their business status this year is worse than in 2011. Only 19% said that their business and production situation is better than last year.

All representatives of the financial and banking sector pointed out that this year’s results were lower than last year while 60% in the steel and construction industry shared the same view. The ratios were lower in other sectors.

Up to 55% of enterprises said that the economy would not see much improvement in 2013. The number of firms forecasting a gloomy view next year was higher than those believing in a positive picture.

These figures show that the 2013 outlook report is not any better than this year in the eye of many enterprises.

Almost all the enterprises said that expenditure reduction contributed to their profits this year while just 45.8% gained profits from business and production. While enterprises in most sectors had profits from cutting expenses, many enterprises in the garment and textile sector said that they obtained profits due to business expansion.

This report is part of activities preparing for announcing the 2012 VNR500 ranking list on December 11.

By Tu Hoang – The Saigon Times Daily