Containers seen at Hai Phong Port (Photo: VNA) In the first half of February, Vietnam exported 8.75 billion USD worth of goodswhile its imports hit 12.66 billion USD. That brought the country's total tradevalue since the beginning of the year to 81.68 billion USD. Duringthe period, the country also saw a trade deficit of over 2.5 billion USD.
However, economists said that the trade deficit wasnot a worrisome figure as February was the time the Lunar NewYear holiday fell. The country's largest holiday lasted up tonine days, so the number of exported goods decreased.
From the beginning of this year to mid-June, two groups of imported goods sawa turnover of billions of dollars. They were computers,electronic products and components; and machinery, equipment and spareparts.
Nguyen Thuong Lang from the National Economics University told Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper that whenimported goods were mainly equipment and raw materials to serve production,rather than consumer goods, the trade deficit should not be a cause forconcern.
In the first months of the year, enterprises often ramped up their imports ofinput materials and spare parts to meet their production and exportdemands for later months, Lang said.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), in 2022, Vietnam’sexports would continue to face many difficulties and challenges with thebiggest ones being the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic thatmight see complicated and unpredictable developments, affectingglobal production and trade, including in Vietnam.
Other difficulties would be skyrocketing freight rates andhigh container rental costs and shortage of containers thatwould continue to affect export prices and reduce the competitiveness ofVietnamese exported goods.
In addition, the increasing trend of non-tariff trade protection barriers inmany major market areas, the volatility of global commodity prices whichhas become unpredictable, or the risk of inflation, and currencyappreciation would also affect exports.
The MoIT said in 2021, Vietnam’s import and export turnover hit a recordof nearly 670 billion USD, of which exports made a spectacular breakthroughwith an increase of over 19 percent. This was a bright spot for theeconomy in the context of the pandemic.
Last year, the country had 35 items seeing an export turnover of 1 billionUSD, an increase of one item compared to 2020. Of these, there were eight itemswith an export turnover of over 10 billion USD.
Although accounting for less than 10 percent of the export value of the wholeeconomy, agriculture was the sector that brought "new impetus" toexport growth in 2021.
The minister attributed the results to good exploitation of foreign markets,which brought Vietnamese goods deeper into the global production and supplychain.
Vietnamese businesses had taken opportunities from free trade agreements,especially new-generation agreements such as CPTPP, EVFTA and UKVFTA, accordingto the ministry.
However, it said that there were still problems relating to imports and exportsthat should be dealt with.
The export scale had increased, but the added value was still low, itsaid, adding that many industries still exported raw and semi-processedproducts. In particular, the proportion of enterprises with domestic investmentin total exports was still low./.
VNA
