07 August 2023

In the first 7 months of the year, the country's trade surplus reached 16.48 billion USD, up more than 12 times compared to 1.34 billion USD of the same period last year.

According to the latest statistics of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in July 2023, the total value of import and export of goods of Vietnam reached 57.07 billion USD, up 2.3% over the previous month. In which, the total export value reached 30.07 billion USD, up 2.1% and the total import value reached 27 billion USD, up 2.4%.

The total value of import and export turnover of the whole country in the first 7 months of 2023 reached 374.36 billion USD, down 13.8% (equivalent to a decrease of 60.14 billion USD) over the same period last year; in which, the total export value reached 195.42 billion USD, down 10.3% (equivalent to a decrease of 22.5 billion USD) and the total import value reached 178.94 billion USD, down 17.4% (equivalent to a decrease of 37.64 billion USD).

Vietnam's merchandise trade balance in July 2023 had a surplus of $3.07 billion. Thereby, raising the cumulative surplus in the first 7 months of 2023 to 16.48 billion USD, much higher than the surplus of 1.34 billion USD of the same period last year.

TS. Le Quoc Phuong, former Deputy Director of the Center for Industry and Trade Information - Ministry of Industry and Trade assessed that in the context of many difficulties in the world economy as well as in the country, the trade balance still has a trade surplus. A large trade surplus is a factor that helps stabilize the macroeconomy, support the balance of international payments, stabilize the exchange rate...

However, further analysis shows that, in the past 7 months, the trade surplus was due to a decrease in import and export turnover, in which imports decreased more sharply than exports. Many markets, especially major export markets of Vietnam such as the US, EU ... all cut consumption, dragging down export orders of domestic enterprises sharply. In addition, more than 90% of imported goods of our country are materials for production activities for export. The decline in material imports proves that the economy is struggling, production is stagnant.

However, the bright spot is that in the past 3 months, both exports and imports of goods have shown signs of growth again, although the growth rate is not high. In July, merchandise exports increased by 0.8% month-on-month; Imports of goods in July 2023 increased by 4.4% compared to the previous month. In particular, imports of goods necessary for production still account for a large number of total import demand. This is a signal that commodity production and exports may be better in the second half of the year.

In the current context, businesses are advised to take advantage of opportunities to restructure and promptly meet new standards of exporting partner countries, such as carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), goods not related to deforestation activities of the US, EU, etc. In addition to taking advantage of recovery opportunities from large, traditional partner markets, such as the US, EU, Japan, China, Korea, ASEAN... It is also necessary to increase the exploitation of new and potential markets such as Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, West Asia, South Asia, Australia, Africa and Latin America.

Source: congthuong.vn