Nhan Dan/VNA - The country has initially reined in raging inflation and the Government will continue to prioritise the work along with stabilising the macro economy, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said.

“Initial outcomes of inflation control in the past months help the government orientate its instructions in the coming time,” Mr Dung said, while chairing the Government’s on-going regular August meeting.

The prime minister underlined that monetary control policy will continue to be implemented in the remaining months but in a flexible way.

He asked government ministries, sectors and localities to keep abreast of production performance nationwide in order to promptly remove obstacles that may arise for businesses and investors.

The Government leader outlined the need to further boost exports and reduce trade deficit, screen the effectiveness of State-funded projects, and efficiently control the market, besides investment in education, healthcare and socio-cultural activities.

In their meeting that opened on September 3, the cabinet members discussed the country’s major socio-economic targets for 2009.

They agreed to set the GDP growth rate for the next year at around 7 percent; an export value of US$75.5-76.7 billion; an import value of US$96.6-97.8 billion; and trade deficit of US$21.1 billion.

They also gave the nod on the planned targets of spending around VND 729 trillion for social investment, collecting VND 418 trillion for state budget, and spending VND 518 trillion.

On social affairs, the cabinet members agreed to reduce the birthrate by 0.25/1,000, generate jobs for 1.7 million people, send 90,000 workers abroad, and reduce the poor household rate to 12 percent.

On September 4, the government officials heard Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu reporting a plan to renew operational and financial mechanisms of non-business public health units.

They will hear and discuss the Government’s action plan to implement the tenth Party Central Committee’s resolution on agriculture, rural areas and farmers and other reports in the morning of September 5.