The economy in Hanoi seems to have come full circle. When I was in college 16-17 years ago, the economy was in ruins, after a land and stock market fever had just passed. Unofficial savings interest rates at some banks went up to 20%. Lending rates were close to 30%. Expensive cafes (typically those on Hang Hanh Street) gradually became sparse and all went out of business. Out of money, people poured onto the sidewalks, sitting on lemon tea and iced tea stalls all over the lake shore, the big church, and around West Lake.

Then, around 2016, the economy recovered, people started having a lot of money again, and all kinds of cafes and restaurants with splendid interiors sprang up all over the city. No one would date a girlfriend on the sidewalk anymore; they had to go to these kinds of places. Lemon tea and popular coffee shops closed down.

From last year to this year, it's the opposite. Beautiful, expensive shops are once again empty of customers. Food and clothing shops that opened after Covid (2022) usually don't last more than a year. The bigger the frontage, the more likely to fail, because rising land prices lead to increased rent, while wages don't increase => people's spending power remains the same.

Since the beginning of last year, the sidewalks of Hoan Kiem Lake have been filled with green and red plastic chairs from iced tea vendors, set up right at the edge of the lake – something that was forbidden for a long time. And even if it wasn't forbidden, not many people used to sit there, except for a few old men – because it looked messy, while there were plenty of nice shops around.

And most clearly, the rise of super cheap milk tea shops originating from Chinese beverage stores in Saigon. They captivated Hanoians with an unimaginable price: only 7k for a cup of milk tea. A large cup, half a liter with tapioca pearls, was only 22k. Every shop had long queues, regardless of the time. Just one section of Truong Dinh street had over a dozen such shops.

You don't need to look at easily manipulated economic indicators; just look at the daily lives of most ordinary people to see if the economy is truly good. Even the owners of long-standing brands like Huy Thanh Jewelry or Adam Store have to go online to complain that they can't sell goods, that they have to close down so many branches, so we can fully understand how much the economy is struggling.