The economy of Hue is constantly developing and growing at a high pace, especially the industry. In 2011, the output value of industry and handicrafts of the city reached VND 7.950 billion, increasing 14% over 2010. The retail sales of goods and services were VND 17.700 billion, rising 22.2% against 2010, the export turnover reached $ 380 million, increasing 47.7% compared to 2010. The import turnover was $ 253, 15 million. The major industries of the city are food, beverages (beer, mineral water and sake wine), production of construction materials (cement, clinker, ceramic tiles, artificial granite…), seafood processing and garments.
According to the assessment, the period from 2008 - 2012, the city's industrial activities have the fair development contributing to the Hue economic restructuring towards increasing the proportion of industry - construction in GDP (in 2008 was 30.75%, in 2012 increased to 35.08%). Initially, the city has formed a number of key industrial products having great value such as beer, cement, textiles and created jobs for nearly 105,000 people accounting for 17.86% of total employment in the economic sectors of the city. The industrial parks, economic zones, industrial clusters have detailed planning. The city also focuses on developing industrial clusters and zones in rural areas contributing to the process of rural agricultural industrialization and the division of labors in rural areas.
Hue city is trying its best to become one of the cities reach the level of development and modernization, an industrial city and to be one of the economic centers of the central key economic area.
Due to affect of the global economic recession, during the period 2008 - 2010, the economic growth rate only reached 11.8%. Hue GDP in 2010 marked a 1.8 – fold rise over 2008. Average GDP per capita was 1,150. 5 USD equal to average GDP per capita for the whole nation. GDP of the city in 2013 reached 7.89%, the provincial GDP per capita was $ 1.700, increasing 1.14% over 2012, and the export value reached $ 540 million, rising 1.17% against 2012 and the state budget revenue was VND 4.069 billion.
There are more than 100 mines for minerals and non-mineral resources. The output value of mineral exploitation and production of building materials constantly increase, including limestone: 1,300 million m3; kaolin: 530 million m3; paving stones: 25 million m3 of clay: 1.000 million tons; stone building: 2,000 million m3; imenit: 100,000 tons of white sand: 100 million tons with over 98.4% of SiO2; sulfurous mineral water: 10 liters / sec, titanium, peat, pyrite, etc.
Regarding agriculture – forestry – fishery, the average annual growth rate stays at 3.5% despite natural disasters and epidemic disasters. Agricultural sector increases by 3.4 % /year, the forestry raises 0.9%/year and the fishery is 5.3%/year. The area crops reach 92,802ha, of which annual crops are 78,789ha (food crops: 54.636ha, annual industrial crops: 4,672ha), perennial crops reached 14,013ha (perennial industrial crops: 9,706ha, fruit crops: 3,985ha). The water surface for aquaculture: 5754.4 hectares, of which the area of salt water, brackish water are 3884.6 ha, the freshwater area is 1909.8 ha. The structure of agriculture and rural economy transferred toward non-agricultural development in which the rate of the agriculture labor decreased to 36.5% in 2010. The rate of poverty households fell 4% annually.
In addition, the service sector is considered the diverse developed area with some potential in this sector, especially tourist services has seen growing by leaps and bounds. The average annual growth rate reaches 8.5%/year. In 2013, Hue welcomed more than 2 million visitors. The amount of visitors staying reached 1,370 million arrivals, up 2.4% compared to the same period in 2012 and reaching 74% the plane in 2013. The international visitors are 564,000; the domestic visitors are 806,000. The average stay reached 2.03 days. The revenue from tourism estimated at VND 1.842 billion, increasing 11.31% over the same period 2012. Among them, the international sales accounted for 61.78%, the social revenue from tourism estimated at over VND 4,600 billion.
The postal and telecommunication services, transport, finance, banking, insurance have been continuously developed to meet the needs of Hue economic development.