The Vietnamese economy will probably expand 5.2 percent this year, Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc reiterated Tuesday.

Grant Thornton’s mid-November 2009 survey shows definite improvement compared to the report in April 2009. The surveyor polled 200 decision makers who are either operating in Vietnam or have interest in Vietnam during the months of October and November 2009. 10.5 percent of people polled in the survey were individual investors, while the others were institutional investors, such as securities companies and law firms.

TOKYO — Japan has pledged to provide US$1.3 billion official development assistance loans for Viet Nam this financial year.

Vietnam hopes to raise $1 billion by early next year in its long-awaited second international bond issue that will cap the coupon at 7 percent, a finance ministry official said on Tuesday.

Citigroup Inc., the third-largest US bank by assets, opened its first retail banking branch in Vietnam to take advantage of increasing wealth in the US$90 billion Southeast Asian economy.