HANOI -- Vietnam's gross domestic product grew 7.09 percent last year, greater than the 5.05 percent expansion in 2023, driven by strong exports and robust foreign investment inflows, government data showed on Monday.

Vietnam's GDP grew 7.55 percent in the fourth quarter, the General Statistics Office said in a report.

The Southeast Asian country, a regional manufacturing hub, has benefited from a recovery in global consumption despite being badly affected by Asia's strongest typhoon last year. Exports in 2024 grew 14.3 percent from a year earlier to $405.53 billion, led by shipments of electronics, smartphones, garments and farm produce, the GSO said in its report.

Imports grew 16.7 percent to $380.76 billion in 2024, resulting in a trade surplus of $24.77 billion, according to the GSO.

The strong rebound in growth in 2024 was also helped by the government increasing coal imports for power generation to avoid a repeat of previous years' electricity shortages.

Coal imports in 2024 rose 24.8 percent from a year earlier to 63.8 million metric tons, while electricity output in the year rose 9.6 percent to 293.3 billion kilowatt hours.

Average consumer prices in 2024 were up 3.63 percent while industrial production output rose 8.4 percent, the GSO said.

Vietnam has set an official GDP growth target of 6.5 percent to 7.0 percent for this year. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh last month said Vietnam would aim for growth of 8.0 percent.