Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the first half of October, 2018

​Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods from January to the first half of October of 2018 totaled US dollars 372.87 billion in value terms. It posted a growth of 13.9% (equivalent to USD 45.4 billion) from the same period of previous year.

In the view of FDI traders, the total value of exportation and importation in the first half of October reached USD 13.47 billion, down by 2.7% (equivalent to USD 378 million) in comparison to the second half of September, 2018. Up to the October, 15th 2018, the total merchandise trade value of FDI traders was USD 243.89 billion, 13.9% higher than the performance of the same period of 2017.

Export:

When compared with the second half of June-2018, export of first half of October decreased by 6.2%, mostly as a result of the decline registered in telephone, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by 12.5% - USD 303 million equally); textiles and garments (down by 4.9% - USD 67 million equally); petroleum products (down by 55% - USD 51 million equally); yarn (down by 23.1% - USD 41 million equally); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (down by 5.3% - USD 38 million equally)…

Chart 1: Top 10 main exported commodities of Vietnam from January to October 15th in 2018 as compared to the same period of 2017.

Source: Vietnam Customs

Import:

In the first half of October 2018, import increase by 2.3% when compared with second half of September, mainly reflecting the widen of computer electrical products (up by 5.5% - USD 98 million equally); plastics (up by 11.3% - USD 41 million equally).

However, the downturn occurred in import of some commodities such as: petroleum products (down by 34.6% - USD 115 million equally); telephones, mobile phones and part thereof (down by 8.7% - USD 71 million equally); animal fodders and animal fodder materials (down by 28.3% - USD 60 million equally); cashew nut (down by 82.8% - USD 54 million equally).

Chart 2: Top 10 main imported commodities of Vietnam from January to October 15th in 2018 as compared to the same period of 2017.

Source: Vietnam Customs