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

Highlights

1.  According to trade statistics of Vietnam Customs, in March 2019, a 53.7% upwards in total external merchandise turnover of Vietnam was recorded on a month-on-month basis. Exports jumped 63.8 %, to USD 22.78 billion and imports remarkably went up 44.2%, to USD 21.15 billion as compared to the result of February 2019. As a result, there was a USD 1.63 billion surplus in Vietnam’s trade balance in this month.

2. In the first quarter of 2019, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 116.31 billion in value terms, 6.6% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of a year earlier, total merchandise exports value rose 5.3%, to US dollars 58.86 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 8.0% to US dollars 57.45 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in this period was in the surplus of US dollars 1.41 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 74.54 billion in total from beginning to March 2019, up by  3.8% as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2018. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 41.08 billion, went up by 3.1%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 33.45 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 1.93 billion); textiles and garments (up by USD 1.23 billion); computers, electrical products and parts thereof ( up by USD 1.03 million);…

 

 

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 2.96 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were computers, electrical products and parts thereof (up by USD 719 million); textiles and garments (up by USD 685 million); foot-wears (up by USD 485 million); …

6. On month-on-month basis, a growth in total merchandise imports was due to the upturns of the commodities as follows: computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 1.07 billion); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 949 million); fabrics (up by USD 453 million); …

7. On year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 4.23 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 4.23 billion); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by USD 991 million); crude oil (up by USD 860 million); … 

Trading Partners

8. In the first quarter of 2019, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 76.51 billion in value terms, which moved up 4.8% as compared to the same period of 2018. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 20.65 billion and increased by 19.4%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 15.63 billion, up by 4.1%; Oceania: USD 2.17 billion, up by 3.6% and Africa: USD 1.35 billion, down by 15.6% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-March period of 2019, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 4 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 13.3 billion); China (reached USD 7.6 billion); Japan (reached USD 4.6 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 4.6 billion).

 

 

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 16.2 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 11.5 billion); Japan (reached USD 4.3 billion).