Export surplus - The highlight of economic growth

Trade surplus has maintained continuous growth in recent years, especially in the past 10 months, when the domestic production scene was greatly affected by the Covid-19 epidemic as well as the effects from the world market. . Efforts to open up markets, promote exports to take advantage of opportunities from free trade agreements, "Covid-era" online trading sessions, and especially internal efforts from each enterprise and association. the industry has made up the export growth figure in recent months, setting a record of trade surplus.

In fact, many key export products have maintained good growth momentum, especially the group of industrial products and some agricultural, forestry and aquatic products. In 10 months, there were 31 items with export turnover of over 1 billion USD, accounting for 91.76% of total export turnover; There are 5 exported items of over 10 billion USD, accounting for 59.9%. The report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that in October 2020, export turnover is estimated at 26.7 billion USD, down 1.7% compared to the month. In 9/2020, it increased by 9.9% over the same period in 2019. According to the representative of the Import and Export Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade, with a quite positive recovery from the beginning of the third quarter of 2020 up to now, export turnover 10 May 2020 reached 229.27 billion USD, an increase of 4.7% over the same period in 2019, this is an encouraging result in the context of global trade facing difficulties due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic, many Asia's economy declined due to the impact of the epidemic.

The processing industry continues to be a key role in the growth rate in October 2020 with a turnover of 22.53 billion USD, an increase of 9% compared to October 2019. In which, items with high growth momentum are still: computers, electronic products and components, up 13.6%; machinery, equipment, tools and other spare parts up 58.3%; wood and wood products by 11.1%; means of transport and spare parts by 25.1%; iron and steel of all kinds by 43%; phones and accessories also increased slightly again with an increase of 0.6%, ... Generally, in 10 months, the export turnover of processed industrial products grew quite high compared to the same period in 2019 with turnover is estimated at 194.37 billion USD, up 5.3% over the same period last year. Some items with good growth rates such as: computers, electronic products and components rose 24.3%; machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts by 42%; wood and wood products by 12.4%, ...

In the context that the recovery of domestic production is not really sustainable, there are many opinions that the super-record number of the past 10 months has a factor to consider that is due to the decrease in imports, not an increase in exports. high; The source of raw materials for domestic production is broken due to epidemics, so in the long run, the decrease in imports will affect the domestic production. This concern is not unwarranted because each month, import turnover has a certain fluctuation with a downward trend more than an increase, compared to export turnover. However, if we look at the overall picture of import and export in the past 10 months, import still maintains an increase in parallel with the rise of exports, especially in October. Specifically, import turnover in October /. 2020 is estimated at $ 24.5 billion, up 1.2% from the previous month. Generally, in the first 10 months of 2020, the total import turnover of goods was estimated at 210.55 billion USD, up 0.4% over the same period in 2019 (an increase of 7.6% in the same period).

Import turnover has tended to increase over the same period, showing that production has started to recover, businesses have been preparing production plans to serve year-end demand. This can be clearly seen when looking at many import growth items concentrated in the manufacturing and processing industry, such as electronics, computers and components with 51.3 billion USD (accounting for 24.4%). total import turnover), up 20.2% over the same period last year; plastic products reached 5.9 billion USD, up 9.6%; chemical products reached 4.6 billion USD, up 3.3% ...

Therefore, the October trade surplus with a trade surplus of 2.2 billion USD, and for the first 10 months of 2020, the record trade surplus of 18.72 billion USD is really the driving force. large for the economy, especially if compared with the level achieved in the same period last year was 9.3 billion USD.

It is impossible not to objectively acknowledge that, in the context of continued declining or slowing growth in exports of many countries in the region, the result of export growth is at 4.7% and maintains a positive balance of trade. The surplus in the first 10 months of the year is a great effort of the economy.

Back to 9 years ago, in 2011, when Vietnam started to implement the "Strategy on import and export goods for the period 2011-2020, with a vision to 2030", we still have a trade deficit of nearly 10 billion USD. trade deficit and for many years before that, trade deficit was always present in the economy. The capital economy is not strong enough, foreign currency reserves are not high, and having to spend a large amount to import goods is very difficult for maintaining macroeconomic stability and development. To see, having an impressive trade surplus in the past 4 years with a steady increase in the surplus over the years, and this year will be the 5th year that Vietnam continues to enjoy that momentum, we have a strategy. correct import and export, attracting foreign investment, administrative reform and improving the business environment, ... In which, the Ministry of Industry and Trade as the state management agency, the focal point on opening markets , developing new markets, negotiating trade agreements to increase merchandise export turnover has done its job well.

The high growth in trade surplus has also affirmed the growth and sustainable development of international trade in the economic structure of Vietnam. The large trade surplus helps the country increase its foreign exchange reserves and have more foreign currencies to stabilize the exchange rate.