Recently, the Ministry of Trade reviewed trade activities of the first ten months of 2005. In October, 2005, Vietnam earned US$2.85 billion in its export turnover, up by 4.5 per cent against that of September. In sum, Vietnam gained US$26.447 billion from export in ten months of 2005, increasing by 21.9 per cent over one year ago. The country’s export value, including that of crude oil and coal, was up by 21.9 per cent (US$4.754 billion), and 17.7 per cent (US$2.969 billion), without export turnover of crude oil and coal.
Landscape of Vietnam’s major exports
Crude oil: Despite a fall of 7.2 per cent in export volume in the first ten months of 2005 against that of the same period of 2004, export turnover of the item was up by 33.5 per cent thanks to a price hike in the world market. The increased price helped Vietnam earn US$1.898 billion more in its crude oil export turnover.
Rice: Vietnam earned US$1.24 billion from rice export from early this year, up by 49 per cent compared to one year ago, and 23.7 per cent against the 2005 plan. As the Government did not allow enterprises export rice in year-end months, October’s rice export value of Vietnam stood at only US$38 million, earned from the implementation of signed export contracts.
Seafood: The item earned Vietnam US$ 2.2 billion, up by 14.4 per cent against the same period of 2004. In recent months, Vietnam’s seafood export turnover saw a higher increase than early this year. With such a progress, seafood export turnover may exceed US$2.7 billion.
Woodworks: Vietnam’s woodwork export value reached US$1.211 billion in ten months, up by 43.1 per cent over one year ago and equal to 87 per cent of the yearly plan for 2005.
Other items, including electronic appliances and spare parts, cashew nuts, plastics products, electric cables and wires, continued to see a high growth rate in ten months of 2005, compared to that of the same period of 2004, thanks to convenient conditions of markets, prices and competitiveness.
Some major export items of Vietnam, which gained a low increase in their export value due to market difficulties, include textiles and garments with US$3.95 billion, up by only 4.2 per cent; footwear, US$2.4 billion and up by only 10.6 per cent.
Vietnam’s export continued to see a high growth rate in ten months of 2005, approximately equal to the target set in early this year. However, Vietnam’s high growth rate in this ten-month period was driven by a price increase of many major export items. Meanwhile, the export volume of many items fell, resulting in a low increase in Vietnam’s export volume in ten months.
Despite unchanged export market structure compared with 2004, an increase of nine per cent in export volume resulted in an additional US$1.951 billion in Vietnam’s export value, while an increase of 11.9 per cent in export prices led to an increase of US$2.803 billion in Vietnam’s export turnover.
Import and trade balance
Scale and speed: Vietnam’s import turnover in ten months reached US$30.517 billion, up by 18.3 per cent against one year ago. Of the figure, US$11.2 billion went to foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises, up by 24.8 per cent.
In October alone, enterprises spent around US$3.2 billion importing materials, equipment, machines and products, up by 9.4 per cent against September. Import turnover increase structure: compared to the same period last year, Vietnam’s import turnover in ten months of 2005, rosed by over US$4.724 billion, or 18.3 per cent. Main import items, which had a high import turnover increase, include finished steel (19.8 per cent), paper (19.4 per cent), cotton (12 per cent), clinker (10 per cent), oil and petrol (4.7 per cent). Imports which saw a fall in volume include fertiliser (33 per cent), completely built automobiles (5.7 per cent).
Trade deficit was estimated at US$4.07 billion in ten months of 2005, equal to 15.4 per cent of total export turnover. Trade deficit has fallen since May and there are optimistic signs.
The domestic market has seen a significant progress with total retail sales of goods and services reaching around VND 384,000 billion, up by 19.1 per cent against the same period of last year. The consumer price index (CPI) in October rose by 0.4 per cent over September, bringing total increase in ten months of 2005 to 7.2 per cent. Goods and services which saw their prices increase sharply include housing and construction materials (1.1 per cent), and education (0.7 per cent). Hanoi and Haiphong are the localities which have the highest CPI increase in October, 0.7 per cent. They were followed by Da Nang and Dong Nai with 0.6 per cent.
Kim Phuong
Vietnamese
