Export growth beyond expectations in first quarter
Vietnam’s exports in the first three months of the year went beyond expectations with total export value estimated at US$43.03 billion, up 12.8% from the same time last year.
Phan Van Chinh, Director of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the export turnover of the domestic sector grew by 12% while that of foreign-invested expanded by 13%.
Exports of agro-forestry-aquatic products enjoyed remarkable achievements when they went up by 12.2% and made up 12.5% of the total export revenue, higher than last year’s figure of 11%.
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The manufacturing sector still kept its export growth trend, reaching 12.5%. Meanwhile, shipments of minerals and fuel saw recovery thanks to an increase in prices of oil and other goods.
However, the country splashed out US$45.03 billion on imports in the period, which led to a trade deficit of US$2 billion, or 4.4% of the total export revenue.
Chinh said that this was spurred by a plunge of US$828 million in export revenue of Samsung company, which dragged down growth of manufacturing product exports. In addition, the increased imports of materials for domestic production like computers, components and leather also contributed to the trade deficit.
Furthermore, the disbursement of US$3.6 billion by foreign-invested projects to purchase equipment and machines like Samsung Display project in Bac Ninh and fiber project in Binh Duong also affected the country’s import revenue.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said that local enterprises should focus on diversifying export products to avoid dependence on key exports like mobile phones as their decreased turnover will have critical impacts on the total export revenue.
