Exports suffered from Covid-19 in the second quarter

In the coming months, Vietnam's import and export will likely continue to recover, but turnover will still decrease compared to the same period in 2019. Photo: N.Linh

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the total export turnover of Vietnam in the first five months was estimated to reach VND 196.84 billion, down 2.8% over the same period in 2019.

In the first five months export turnover of Vietnam was estimated to reach $99.36 billion, down 1.7% over the same period in 2019 (increasing by 7.1% of the same period).

Export turnover of domestic enterprises retained double-digit growth rate, up 10.4% compared to the same period in 2019, estimated at $33.3 billion.

This is considered a bright spot of exporting commodity activities from the beginning of 2020 until now, especially in the context of the export turnover of FDI enterprises (including crude oil) falling 6.9% over the same period in 2019 (estimated at $66.06 billion) due to the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first five months, the export turnover of all three important groups dropped. The group of processed industrial products has the lowest decrease of 1.2% compared to the same period in 2019; followed by agriculture and aquatic products with a decrease of 4.7% and mineral fuels with the highest decrease of 31.3%.

"Not only deceleration, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, many partners cut orders. Hence exporting goods of Vietnam increasingly faced difficulties in the second quarter of 2020,” a representative of Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade further reported that in the first five months, there were 17 items with export turnover of more than $1 billion, accounting for 82% of total export turnover. Phones and components were still the largest export group, but export turnover in the first five months of the year only reached $17.98 billion, down 8.8% from the same period in 2019.

Regarding trade balance, in May, Vietnam was estimated to suffer a trade deficit of $900 million. Generally, in the first five months of the year, Vietnam continued to have a trade surplus of $1.88 billion, much higher than the figure of trade deficit of $256 million in the same period in 2019. Of that, FDI enterprises had a trade surplus of $10.52 billion; domestic enterprises suffered a trade deficit of $8.64 billion.

Thus, although Vietnam's commercial activity in May has prospered, it continued to face many difficulties due to the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It can be said that Vietnam's commercial activities from the beginning of the second quarter of 2020 have been strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic spreading globally, especially in Vietnam's leading trading partners such as EU, US, Japan, ASEAN," a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

Regarding exporting commodities from the beginning of the year until now, according to a survey of nearly 130 thousand enterprises of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in terms of consumption and export markets, 57.7% of enterprises said the consumption market has dropped sharply; 47.2% of enterprises operating export activities affirmed goods produced could not be exported.

In the future, the Ministry of Industry and Trade forecast that Vietnam's export activities will still face many difficulties in the short term. Although Vietnam has succeeded in the fight against Covid-19, the attraction of investment and boosting exports depends largely on external factors.

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic in the world is still making complex developments and seriously affecting the global economy, and the recovery process will take a long time. Therefore, in the coming months, Vietnam's import and export will likely continue to recover, but turnover will still decrease compared to the same period in 2019.