Just months after Donald Trump singled out Vietnam for one of the most punitive tariff rates on a major US trading partner, the Southeast Asian nation’s stock market has soared, its GDP growth is beating almost all estimates and it’s even managed a deal of sorts with the mercurial American president.
The VN stock index hit a fresh record this week after Vietnam won an upgrade to “emerging market” status from FTSE Russell, one of the world’s biggest benchmark providers, moving up a notch from “frontier,” which is viewed as riskier and more volatile. That was after years of capital-market reforms, which are continuing under the country’s current leader, Communist Party General Secretary To Lam.