Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first 8 months of 2019

​2. In the first 8 months of 2019, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 337.22 billion in value terms, 8.1% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of a year earlier, total merchandise exports value rose 8.1%, to US dollars 171.29 billion and the total merchandise imports value grew up 8.0% to US dollars 165.92 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in this period was in the surplus of US dollars 5.37 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 213.16 billion in total from beginning to August 2019, up by 5.0% as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2018. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 117.21 billion, went up by 5.3%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 95.95 billion, went up by 4.6%.

Main Exports and Imports

4. On a 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 1.92 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 533 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 103 million); …

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports grew up USD 12.85 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products and parts thereof (up by USD 3 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 2.01 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 1.77 billion); …

6.On a month-on-month basis, a reduction in total merchandise imports was due to the downturns of the commodities as follows: fabrics (down by USD 159 million);Other means of transportation, parts and accessories thereof (down by USD 152 million); petroleum products (down by USD 128 million);

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 12.33 billion. The growth in imports was mainly contributed by the upturns of the following products: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 5.75 billion); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 2.71 billion); motor vehicles (up by USD 1.45 billion); …

Trading Partners

8. In the first 8 months of 2019, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 219.85 billion in value terms, which moved up 6.1% as compared to the same period of 2018. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 62.27 billion and increased by 21.1%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 43.90 billion, up by 3.7%; Oceania: USD 6.42 billion, up by 7.3% and Africa: USD 4.78 billion, down by 4.7% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-August period of 2019, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 10 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 39.3 billion); China (reached USD 23.9 billion); Japan (reached USD 13.3 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 12.8 billion).

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 49 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 31.2 billion); Japan (reached USD 12.4 billion).