Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 2 months of 2017

2. From the beginning to February of 2017, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 55.66 billion in value terms, 19.5% above the corresponding period of 2016. As compared to result of the first two months of last year, total merchandise exports value rose 15.8% to US dollars 27.43 billion and the total merchandise imports value went up 23.3% to US dollars 28.23 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in the first 2 months of 2017 was in the deficit of US dollars 803 million.

3. Trade data disseminated recently by Vietnam Customs announced that the total value of exportation and importation by foreign direct invested (FDI) traders reached USD 35.98 billion in total for the first 2 months of 2017, up by 18.5 % as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2016. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 9.29 billion, went down by 6.9%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 16.73 billion, went up by 21.4%.​

Main Exports and Imports

4. On month-on-month basis, the decrease in total merchandise exports was due to the downturns in textiles and garments (down by USD 769 million); foot-wears (down by USD 307 million); foot-wears (down by USD 166 million); wood and wooden products (down by USD 155 million).

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 2.99 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 676 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 347 million); foot-wears (up by USD 222 million)…

6. On month-on-month basis, expansion in total merchandise imports was due to the upwards of the commodities as follows: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 360 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 175 million); iron and steels (up by USD 168 million)…

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 4.95 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upturns of the following products: machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 968 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 570 million); iron and steels (up by USD 379 million)…

Trading Partners

8. In the first 2 months of 2017, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 37.16 billion in value terms, which moved up 24.3% as compared to the same period of 2016. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 9.03 billion and increased by 10.6%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 7.74 billion, up by 10.9%; Oceania: USD 953.5 million, up by 4.7% and Africa: USD 779.5 million, up by 21.7% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-February period of 2017, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 1 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 5.3 billion); China (reached USD 3.8 billion); Japan (reached USD 2.4 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached USD 1.9 billion).

10. On import side, there were six partners exporting goods to Vietnam with turnover of over 1 billion. They were as follows: China (reached USD 7.6 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 5.8 billion); Japan (reached USD 2.3 billion); Taiwan (reached USD 1.7 billion); The United States of America (reached USD 1.4 billion) and Thailand (reached USD 1.3 billion).