15/07/2013
Data on exports and imports of goods in Q1/2010 recently announced by the General Department of Customs shows that exports increased compared to the same period, instead of decreasing as in previous estimates, and the trade deficit also eased more than the forecast figures.
Specifically, export turnover of goods in Q1/2010 still increased 1.6% compared to the same period in 2009 (estimated figures suggested a decrease of 1.6%) and reached 14.457 billion USD. However, imports increased by up to 40.2% (the previous estimate was an increase of 37.6%) and reached 17.857 billion USD.
With these results, the trade deficit in Q1/2010 was only 3.4 billion USD, instead of 3.5-3.6 billion USD as calculated half a month ago. Although the trade deficit decreased compared to the previous estimate, it still accounts for 23.5% of total export turnover, exceeding the "threshold" of the 20% control target set by the National Assembly.
In the short-term trade relationship between Vietnam and the world, imports are trending quite high, 25 times higher than the growth rate of exports. It should also be noted that in Q1, Vietnam imported more than 10 tons of gold, worth hundreds of millions of USD.
According to calculations by some experts, if this abnormal transaction is not included, Vietnam's trade deficit does not exceed the 20% control level. If gold is not included in export and import statistics for the past two years, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that export turnover in Q1 could increase by up to 19% compared to the same period.
Most notably, FDI enterprises have a much higher growth rate of import turnover than the national average. Related to this, FDI capital disbursement increased quite well in Q1/2010 (2.5 billion USD compared to 2.2 billion USD in the same period in 2009).
It can also be said that the FDI enterprise sector has regained its enthusiasm in production and business activities. Although crude oil exports decreased 47.1% in volume and 9.1% in value, the export turnover of this sector in Q1 increased 43.4% compared to the same period, 27 times higher than the overall growth rate and reached 6.8 billion USD, accounting for 47% of total export turnover.
Meanwhile, imports by this sector increased by up to 57.3% compared to the same period last year and reached 7.3 billion USD, accounting for nearly 41% of total import turnover of goods.
By commodity, export turnover increased strongly in groups of chemicals, rubber and iron and steel products of all kinds, electric wires and cables, vehicles and spare parts, while decreasing significantly in both volume and turnover in groups of precious stones and metals, coffee, crude oil, cassava and cassava products, rice…
Regarding imports, only complete motorcycles and fertilizers of all kinds decreased in both volume and turnover; gasoline, oil and liquefied gas decreased in volume but increased in turnover, while other items all increased in import turnover, notably animal feed, tobacco raw materials and accessories, rubber, cotton of all kinds, precious stones and metals, base metals, automobile components and spare parts all increased by over 100%.
For markets with large trade relations with Vietnam (countries and territories with export or import turnover of over 1 billion USD in Q1/2010), our country had a trade surplus of 2.029 billion USD with the United States in Q1/2010.
However, Vietnam had a trade deficit of 2.556 billion USD with China, 1.285 billion USD with South Korea, 1.193 billion USD with Taiwan, 925 million USD with Thailand, 355 million USD with Singapore, 152 million USD with Japan…
