Drought weighs on Vietnam

HANOI: Vietnam´s annual economic growth slowed to an estimated 5.46 percent in the first quarter, the slowest expansion for any quarter since January-March 2014, due mainly to the country´s worst drought in 90 years.

Cold spells in the northern region, drought in the central part - including the Central Highlands coffee belt - and salination in the Mekong Delta have
affected the industrial and farm sectors as well as exports and imports, the General Statistics
Office (GSO) said on Friday in its March report.