Vietnam likely to post trade surplus for fourth straight year
With a record trade surplus of 9.12 billion USD over the first 11 months and year-on-year export growth of 7.8 percent, experts believe that 2019 will be the fourth straight year Vietnam will post a trade surplus.
The shoe factory of the Ha Tay Chemical Weave Co. Ltd in Hanoi's Ba Vi district (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – With a record tradesurplus of 9.12 billion USD over the first 11 months and year-on-year exportgrowth of 7.8 percent, experts believe that 2019 will be the fourth straightyear Vietnam will post a trade surplus.
According to the Export-Import Department underthe Ministry of Industry and Trade, the country shipped 241.42 billion USDworth of goods abroad between January and November, up 7.8 percent from theprevious year.
That included 74.72 billion USD exported bydomestic businesses and 166.7 billion USD (including crude oil) from foreigninvested firms, rising 18.1 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively. The domesticsector’s proportion of total export revenues also increased to 30.95 percentfrom 29.16 percent.
Meanwhile, imports have reached 232.31 billionUSD so far this year, up 7.4 percent year on year. The figure includes 98.2billion USD by domestic firms and 134.1 billion USD by foreign invested companies,up 13.9 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.
Analysts said amidst the complex globalsituation and more non-tariff barriers, Vietnam’s sustained export growth andrecord trade surplus have proven the effectiveness of its efforts to takeadvantage of export opportunities.
Deputy Director of the Export-Import DepartmentTran Thanh Hai said by the end of November, 32 commodities had enjoyed anexport turnover of more than 1 billion USD, including eight with over 5 billionUSD and five with over 10 billion USD in revenue.
He said exports to the markets that Vietnam has freetrade agreements with have posted good growth, including Japan (up 7.6 percentyear on year), the Republic of Korea (10.1 percent), ASEAN (2.5 percent),Russia (9.1 percent) and New Zealand (6.8 percent).
The US remained the biggest destination forVietnamese goods in the reviewed period, followed by the EU, China, ASEAN,Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The export structure has also been improved withless raw materials and more processed and industrial products shipped abroad,Hai added./.
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Vietnam shipped abroad more than 3.72 million tonnes of crude oil worth over 1.87 billion USD in the first 11 months of 2019, up 3.3 percent in volume but down 8.4 percent in value year-on-year, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
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The shoe factory of the Ha Tay Chemical Weave Co. Ltd in Hanoi's Ba Vi district (Photo: VNA) 
