Earlier this month, the GSO said it was revising the way it measured GDP to meet international norms and better reflect the real size and structure of the economy.

"We have completed the revision of the size of the GDP for the 2011-17 period and submitted the result to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc for approval," Nguyen Bich Lam, director of the GSO, told Reuters.

The new methodology, one recommended by the UN, involves new sources of statistics such as additional information from the latest general survey, new administrative documents and updated national accounts.

According to the GSO’s previous calculations, the GDP grew at 7.08 percent last year, the highest in a decade, to $223.9 billion.

The government targets annual GDP growth of 6.5-7 percent in the five years leading up to 2020.