Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 8 months of 2018

2. From the beginning to August of 2018, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 312.13 billion in value terms, 14.5% above the corresponding period of last year. On year-on-year basis, total merchandise exports value rose 16.7%, to US dollars 158.41 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 12.4% to US dollars 153.72 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in the first 8 months of 2018 was in the surplus of US dollars 4.69 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 203.05 billion in total from beginning to August 2018, up by 14.9% as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2017. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 111.27 billion, went up by 16.7 %. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 91.78 billion, went up by 12.6%.

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 1.3 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by 400 USD); textiles and garments (up by USD 290 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 282 million)…

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 22.69 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 4.92 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 2.86 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 2.8 billion); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 2.48 billion)...

6.On a month-on-month basis, an expansion in total merchandise imports value was due to the upturns of the commodities as follows: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up USD 618 million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 459 million); crude oil (up by USD 245 million)…

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 16.91 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upwards of the following products: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 3.66 billion); other base metals (up by USD 1.35 billion); petroleum products (up by USD 1.23 billion); crude oil (up by USD 1.09 million) …

Trading Partners

8. In the first 8 months of 2018, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 207.18 billion in value terms, which moved up 15.3% as compared to the same period of 2017. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 51.48 billion and increased by 14.1%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 42.37 billion, up by 12.2%; Oceania: USD 6.06 billion, up by 19.8% and Africa: USD 5.04 billion, up by 2.7% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9.For January-August period of 2018, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 11 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 30.8 billion); China (reached USD 24.4 billion); Japan (reached USD 12.2 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 11.9 billion).

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 41.6 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 31.1 billion); Japan (reached USD 12.3 billion).