Four out of Viet Nam's eight major indicators witnessed year-on-year decrease, in which inbound tourism experienced the steepest fall of 48.8% in the first five months this year, official data shows. 

Due to the serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign arrivals to Viet Nam fell by 48.8% to 3.7 million in the reviewed period, the General Statistics Office said Friday.

Of the total, 72.9% tourists were from Asia, down 51.4%. The fall was seen in almost all major markets, such as China (-57.2%), Malaysia (-53.9%), the Republic of Korea (53.4%), Japan (-48.2%), France (47.5%), the UK (-44.3%), and Russia (-23.2%). Tourism revenue was estimated at VND 8.3 trillion, down 54.1%.

Export-import

The GSO said export turnover reached US$99.36 billion, down 1.7%year-on-year. The domestic sector’s export value was US$33.3 billion, up 10.4% compared to the same period last year, while the FDI sector’s exports, including crude oil, were valued at US$66.06 billion, down 6.9%.

Commodities seeing strong growth in export value during the period included machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts with 25%; computers, electronic products, and components with 22.1%; rice with 17.2%; coffee with 2.9%; and cashew nuts with 2.2%.

Those with declining turnover were telephones and components (8.8%), textiles (14.5%), footwear (4.6%), fruit and vegetables (10.3%), rubber (29.6%), and pepper (17.9%).

Meanwhile, import value reached US$97.48 billion, down 3.% year-on-year, the GSO said.

The US was the largest importer of Vietnamese goods in the period, with turnover reaching US$24.6 billion, up 8.2%. It was followed by China with turnover of US$16.3 billion, up 20.1%.

Viet Nam's exports to the EU and ASEAN fell 12% and 13.4%, with turnover of US$12.9 billion and US$9.4 billion, respectively.

Foreign investment

The Southeast Asian country lured a total of US$13.9 billion in foreign investment, down 17% from the same period last year.

There were 1,212 newly-registered projects capitalized at US$7.4 billion, down 11.1% in number and up 15.2% in capital.

Among 58 countries and territories having new projects in Viet Nam, Singapore was the largest investor, with more than US$4.3 billion, followed by Chinese Taipei with US$743 million, China with US$694 million, Hong Kong (China) with US$500 million, and the Republic of Korea with US$441 million.

The disbursed volume of FDI decreased by 8.2% to US$6.7 billion as of May 20, of which over US$4.9 billion went to processing and manufacturing sector.

Consumer price index

The consumer price index in May shrank by 0.03% against the previous month but rose by 4.39% from the same period last year.

Four out of the 11 commodity groups experienced price reductions, with transport (2.21%), culture, entertainment and tourism (0.02%), post and telecommunication services (0.02%), and garment-headwear-footwear (0.01%).

Meanwhile increases were seen in prices of restaurant and catering service (0.34%); beverage and tobacco (0.25%); housing and building material (0.25%); other commodities and services (0.07%); household appliances (0.05%); and medicine and medical services (0.04%)./.