Preliminary assessment of Vietnam international merchandise trade performance in May and the 5 months of 2016

2. From the beginning to May of 2016, Vietnam‘s trade-in-goods totaled US dollars 133.25 billion in value terms, 2.2% above the corresponding period of 2015. As compared to result of the January-May period of 2015, total merchandise exports value rose 6.2% to US dollars 67.44 billion and the total merchandise imports value decreased 1.7% to US dollars 65.81 billion. Accordingly, Vietnam’s trade balance in the 5 months of 2016 was in the surplus of US dollars 1.64 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 US dollars 85.93 billion in total in the 5 months of 2016, up by 3.5 % as compared to the result of corresponding period of 2015. Total value of FDI exportation was US dollars 47.13 billion, went up by 9.4%. On import side, the total value of those companies was US dollars 38.80 billion, went down by 2.8%.

Main Exports and Imports

4. The April of 2016 to May of 2016 increase in total merchandise exports was due to the upturns in foot-wears (up by US dollars 227 million); precious stones, precious metal and articles thereof (up by US dollars 55 million);...

5. The commodities, of which the upwards resulted in significant expansion in total exports value in the 5months of 2016 as compared to that of 2015, were as follows: telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (up by US dollars 2.28 billion); textiles and garments (up by US dollars 517 million); machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by US dollars 503 million);…

   6. The April of 2016 to May of 2016 upturn in total merchandise imports was due to the upwards in machine, equipment, tools and instruments (up by US dollars 260 million); iron and steel products (down by US dollars 83 million);...

7. From the beginning to May of 2016, Vietnam Customs Statistics recorded a decrease in value terms of some imported commodities, which led to the downturns in total as compared to performance of the corresponding period in 2015. They were as follows: machine, equipment, tools and instruments (down by US dollars 820 million); iron and steel products (down by US dollars 685million); telephones, mobile phones and parts thereof (down by US dollars 697 million); petroleum products (down by US dollars 498 million)…

Trading Partners

8. In the 5 months of 2016, Vietnamese merchandise trade with trading partners in Asia was totaled US dollars 85.86 billion in value terms, which moved down 0.7% as compared to the same period of 2015. Trade-in-goods of Vietnam with America was followed, which reached US dollars 23.43 billion and increased by 9.4%. The values of other continents were Europe: US dollars 19.75 billion, up by 8.9%; Oceania: US dollars 2.34 billion, down by 3.2% and Africa: US dollars 1.86 billion, down by 8.1% in comparison with the same period of prior year.

9. From the beginning to May of 2016, 4 exporting markets of Vietnam with turnover of over US dollars 4 billion were The United States of America (reached US dollars 14.6 billion); China (reached US dollars 7.5 billion), Japan (reached US dollars 5.5 billion) and Republic of Korea (reached US dollars 4.2 billion).

10. On import side, there were four partners exporting goods to Vietnam with turnover of over US dollars 4 billion. They were as follows: China (reached US dollars 18.9 billion); Republic of Korea (reached US dollars 12.2 billion); Japan (reached US dollars 5.6 billion); Taiwan (reached US dollars 4.4 billion).