Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 7 months of 2017

2. From the beginning to July of 2017, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 233.13 billion in value terms, 21.1% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of the first 7 months of 2017, total merchandise exports value rose 18.8%, to US dollars 115.3 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 23.6% to US dollars 117.83 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in January-July period of 2017 was in the deficit of US dollars 2.53 billion.

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 151.98 billion in total from beginning to July 2017, up by 23.1 % as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2016. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 81.09 billion, went up by 19.8%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 70.89 billion, went up by 27.2%.​

Main Exports and Imports

4. On month-on-month basis, a reduction in total merchandise exports was due to the downturns in telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 160 million); crude oil (down by USD 123 million); foot-wears (down by USD 89 million)... An increase occurred in exportation of some commodities such as: textiles and garments (up by USD 91 million); fruit and vegetables (up by USD 87 million); fishery products (up by USD 56 million)…

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 18.21 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 4.15 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 2.91 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 1.64 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 1.07 million)…

6. On month-on-month basis, decrease in total merchandise imports was due to the downwards of the commodities as follows: machine, equipments, tools and instruments (down by USD 368 million); animal fodders and animal fodder materials (down by USD 116 million); pharmaceutical products (down by USD 76 million)…

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 22.46 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upturns of the following products: machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 5.67 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 4.11 million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 1.82 million)…

Trading Partners

8. In the first 7 months of 2017, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 153.56 billion in value terms, which moved up 24.2% as compared to the same period of 2016. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 38.65 billion and increased by 14.1%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 32.38 billion, up by 13.5%; Oceania: USD 4.37 billion, up by 30.4% and Africa: USD 4.17 billion, up by 39.2% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-July period of 2017, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 6 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 23.4 billion); China (reached USD 15.6 billion); Japan (reached USD 9.4 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached USD 7.7 billion).

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 31.6 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 26.3 billion); Japan (reached USD 9.1 billion).