Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 8 months of 2017

2. From the beginning to August of 2017, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 270.91 billion in value terms, 20.9% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of the first 8 months of 2017, total merchandise exports value rose 19.3%, to US dollars 135.03 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 22.5% to US dollars 135.88 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in January -August period of 2017 was in the deficit of US dollars 842 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 176.96 billion in total from beginning to August 2017, up by 22.8 % as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2016. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 95.09 billion, went up by 20.4%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 81.87 billion, went up by 25.8%.

Main Exports and Imports

4. On month-on-month basis, an increase in total merchandise exports was due to the upturns in telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 1.056 billion); computers, electrical products and parts thereof (up by USD 339 million); textiles and garments (up by USD 212 million)... A decrease occurred in exports of some commodities such as: other means of transportation, parts and accessories thereof (down by USD 71 million); fruit and vegetables (down by USD 37 million); foot-wears (down by USD 37 million)…

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 21.9 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 4.76 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 4.08 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 1.97 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 1.27 million).

6. On month-on-month basis, an expansion in total merchandise imports was due to the upturns of the commodities as follows: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 265 million); crude oil (up by USD 212 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 185 million);… A decrease occurred in importation of some commodities such as: cashew nuts (down by USD 76 million); fruit and vegetables (down by USD 54 million);…

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 46.8 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upturns of the following products: machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 6.09 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 4.54 million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 2.35 million)…

Trading Partners

8. In the first 8 months of 2017, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 178.39 billion in value terms, which moved up 23.9% as compared to the same period of 2016. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 44.86 billion and increased by 13.5%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 37.73 billion, up by 14.3%; Oceania: USD 5.01 billion, up by 25.6% and Africa: USD 4.91 billion, up by 38.5% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-August period of 2017, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 9 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 27.4 billion); China (reached USD 18.7 billion); Japan (reached USD 11.0 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached USD 9.2 billion).

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 36.5 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 30.1 billion); Japan (reached USD 10.4 billion).