General

In the third quarter of 2022, Vietnam's economic operation will generally show positive changes. Nguyen Hung Yen, Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, said that the government, ministries and commissions, especially the business community, had effectively implemented measures to stimulate consumer demand and promote product docking to promote import and export activities. As a result, the trade deficit unexpectedly expanded and exceeded expectations.

In 2021, despite the heavy blow of the COVID-19, Vietnam's total import and export volume will still hit a record, reaching 668 billion US dollars. Vietnam has become one of the 20 economies with the largest trade scale in the world. This proves the ability of Vietnamese enterprises to maintain productivity and develop international markets.

According to customs data, Vietnam's import and export volume of goods in the first nine months of 2022 is about 558 billion US dollars. Among them, the export volume reached 282 billion US dollars and the import volume reached 276 billion US dollars.

According to the customs data, as of October 20, the total import and export volume had reached about 620 billion US dollars, including the export volume of 313.85 billion US dollars, the import volume of 306.1 billion US dollars, and the trade surplus of nearly 8 billion US dollars.

According to this momentum, it is estimated that the total import and export volume of Vietnam's goods trade in 2022 will reach 800 billion dollars, and the trade surplus will reach about 10 billion dollars. This is a remarkable achievement.

From the perspective of export structure, up to now, there are 32 goods with total import and export of Vietnam exceeding 1 billion dollars, higher than that in 2021. According to customs data, the industries with export growth are concentrated in textile and clothing (up 24%), leather shoes (up 36%), plastics, fertilizer and other industries. The business community is making full use of free trade agreements to develop traditional markets and explore new markets. Import and export activities basically meet domestic production and consumption needs.

The Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam pointed out that the strong growth of exports was mainly due to the government and various ministries' efforts to ease difficulties for enterprises, improve production capacity and open up new markets in the past two years. In the past, Vietnam's exports mainly depended on a few markets, such as China, Europe, Japan, and the United States. Now, the total demand of these markets is shrinking, coupled with high inflation. In this context, Vietnam's exports continue to return to the Eastern European market, injecting impetus into domestic enterprises. According to customs data, the total retail sales of goods and services in September rose positively, up 21% compared with the same period in 2021.

Another reason is that enterprises actively use e-commerce to sell products. According to customs data, at present, Vietnam's e-commerce sales amount to about 14 billion US dollars, and it is estimated that in 2022, it will reach 17 billion to 18 billion US dollars. According to the prediction of many international organizations, the growth rate of e-commerce in Vietnam can reach 25%.