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Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in the whole year 2017

Summary

Updated on : 28-02-2018

1.  According to trade statistics of Vietnam Customs, in December 2017, a slight 0.4% upwards in total external merchandise turnover of Vietnam was recorded on month-on-month basis. Exports decreased 1.7 %, to USD 19.65 billion and imports went up 2.5%, to USD 19.89 billion as compared to the result of November 2017. As a result, there was a USD 233 million deficit in Vietnam’s trade balance in this month.

2. From the beginning to December of 2017, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 425.12 billion in value terms, 21.0% above the corresponding period of last year. As compared to result of a year earlier, total merchandise exports value rose 21.2%, to US dollars 214.02 billion and the total merchandise imports value increased 20.8% to US dollars 211.10 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in January-December period of 2017 was in the surplus of US dollars 2.92 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 278.56 billion in total from beginning to December 2017, up by  23.1% as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2016. Total value of FDI exportation was USD 152.19 billion, went up by 22.9%. On import side, the total value of those companies was USD 126.37 billion, went up by 23.4%.

Main Exports and Imports                        

4. On a month-on-month basis, a decrease in total merchandise exports was due to the downturns in telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by USD 698 million); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (down by USD 361 million); machine, equipment, tools and instrument (down by USD 59 million)… An increase occurred in exportation of some commodities such as: textiles and garments (up by USD 311 million); coffee (up by USD 102 million); foot-wears (up by USD 100 million)…

5. On a year-on-year basis, exports expanded USD 37.4 billion. The main products, which contributed to the increase, were telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 10.96 billion); computers, electrical products, spare-parts and components thereof (up by USD 6.99 billion); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 2.66 billion); textiles and garments (up by  USD 2.21 million).

6. On a 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 207 million); motor vehicles (up by USD 174 million); … A downward occurred in importation of some commodities such as: parts and accessories of motor vehicles (down by USD 71 million); fabrics (down by USD 65 million); …

7. On a year-on-year basis, imports went up USD 36.30 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 9.81 billion); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by USD 5.77 million); machine, equipments, tools and instruments (up by USD 5.13 million)… 

    Trading Partners

8. In the whole year 2017, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled USD 284.78 billion in value terms, which moved up 25.7% as compared to the same period of 2016. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached USD 67.98 billion and increased by 9.9%. The values of other continents were Europe: USD 57.92 billion, up by 12.8%; Oceania: USD 7.76 billion, up by 24.3% and Africa: USD 6.69 billion, up by 24.8% in comparison with the same period of last year.

9. For January-December period of 2017, 4 importing markets of Vietnam with turnover of over USD 14 billion were: The United States of America (reached USD 41.6 billion); China (reached USD 35.5 billion); Japan (reached USD 16.8 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached USD 14.8 billion).

10. According to the following chart, top 3 big sources of Vietnam’s imports were as follows: China (reached USD 58.2 billion); Republic of Korea (reached USD 46.7 billion); Japan (reached USD 16.6 billion).