Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first half of August, 2020

Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods from January to the first half of August of 2020 totaled US dollars 310.41 billion in value terms. It posted a decrease of 0.4% (equivalent to USD 1.37 billion) from the same period of previous year. In which, the total merchandise exports value was up by 1.8% to nearly US dollars 160.24 billion and the total merchandise imports value was down 2.7%, to US dollars 150.16 billion.

In the view of FDI traders, the value of exportation and importation in the first half of August reached USD 14.1 billion, down by 4.1% as compared to the second half of July 2020. Therefore, from January to August 15th of 2020, the total value of FDI merchandise trade went down by 5% to US dollar 186.97 billion.

Export:

When compared with the second half of July-2020, export of first half of August decreased by 9%, mostly as a result of the downturn registered in computer electrical products and part thereofs (down by 18.6% - USD 438 million); textile garments (down by 15.8% - USD 255 million); machine, tools and equipments (down by 15.6% - USD 206 millions);

Chart 1: Top 10 main exported commodities from Jan. to August 15th 2010 over the same period of 2019.

Sources: Vietnam Customs

Import:

In the first half of August 2020, import decreased by 5.2 % when compared with the second half of July, mainly reflecting the downturn in machine, tools and equipments (down by 6.4% - USD 108 millions); computer, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by 2.8% - USD 83 million); fabrics (down by 14.6% - USD 76 millions)…

Chart 2: Top 10 main imported commodities from Jan. to August 15th 2010 over the same period of 2019.