Trade deficit with China increased by nearly 60%

	First half of April - Trade deficit was nearly 750 million USD
	Overview of import and export activities in the first 2 months: Reducing trade deficit
	Vietnam’s trade deficit in the first 2 months was normal

The trade balance with 10 main markets in 4 months of the beginning of the year,the UAE is the United Arab Emirates. Unit: "billion dollars". Chart: Binh.

12.3 billion USD of trade deficit with China

Import and export scale in the 4 months of the beginning of the year has increased by 12.56 billion USD, but this figure is lower than the increase in the first 4 months of 2018, which reached 18.4 billion USD

Regarding the trade balance, the last 4 months showed the "export-led growth" and "trade deficit" continuously reversed. In January it was export- led growth, trade deficit in February, export-led growth came back in March and April, trade balance showed adeficit of 555 million USD, equal to 2.7% of the export value.

However, by the end of April, Vietnam has maintained a continuous surplus status for the last 3 years. Specifically, after one third of 2019, the trade balance of goods was surplus of 752 million USD. In which, FDI enterprises saw export-led growthreach 9.85 billion USD, down by 6.8%; while domestic enterprises increased their trade deficits, with a trade deficit of USD 9.1 billion, up 31.9% compared to the same period last year.

In terms of trading partners, Vietnam reached the largest surplus for the US market in the last 4 months to 13.5 billion USD, increased by 32% compared to the same period last year.

Conversely, the trade deficit with China has an alarming number, arise of 58.7%, with a deficit of 12.3 billion USD, equal to a half of the 2018 trade deficit.

Specifically, in the export market, the biggest contribution to Vietnam's export growth isthe US market, increased by more than 4 billion USD. In the first 4 months, exports to the US reached 17.87 billion USD.

Import market, turnover from China increased over 4 billion USD. Besides, there is a big contribution from the Kuwait market, increasing over 1 billion USD.

In the last 4 months, import turnover from China reached 22.77 billion USD, ariseof 21.3%.

Import-export scale of Vietnam in 4 months of 2018 and 4 months of 2019. Chart: Binh.

Cars, crude oil imports rose to record levels

Regarding import activities, the increase in turnover related to computers, electronic products and components reached 2.44 billion USD; machinery, equipment and spare parts increased 1.71 billion USD; crude oil rose 1.22 billion USD; automobiles increased by 949 million USD ...

The turnover of 2 commodity groups with sudden increases are cars and crude oil.

By the end of April, the number of imported cars was 50,680 units, increased 44,000 units compared to the same period last year. In which, automobiles were mainly imported from Thailand with 32,400 units and from Indonesia with 12,700 units. Overall, the import volume from these two markets took 89% of Viet Nam imports.

For crude oil, serving the operation of Nghi Son refinery, the amount of imported crude oil in 4 months of this year increased, while the amount of imported petroleum fell sharply.

Specifically, crude oil imports reached 3.3 million tons, while the figure of the same period last year was only 354 thousand tons. It means that crude oil volume in the last 4 months increased about 9 times compared to the same period last year.

The main import market of crude oil is Kuwait.

With high tax and a large import value, these 2 commodity groups have contributed significantly to the budget revenue of Customs. At the local customs units (HaiPhong, ThanhHoa, Ho Chi Minh City), where the main procedures are carried out with the above two groups of goods, the result is a very high increase.

The preliminary update of the General Department of Customs from the beginning of the year to May 16, the revenue of HCMC Customs Department reached 43,610 billion VND, up 20.52%; the revenue of HaiPhong Customs Department reached 26,209 billion VND, up 53.41%; the revenue of ThanhHoa Customs Department reached 4,016 billion VND, up 232.6%.

Total revenue from the three customs departments mentioned above took nearly 56% of the total budget revenue of the industry.