VietNamNet Bridge – The consumer price index (CPI) decrease in May is the indicator showing the weak aggregate demand in the national economy which needs to be stimulated to recover the economic growth.

A recent report of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)  said that the Vietnamese national economy would have to rely on the exports, which still have been growing. However, if only relying on the export growth, the economy recovery would go very slowly.

Meanwhile, it is now more difficult to boost export. The export prices of some Vietnamese key products have decreased. The Japanese yen appreciation has hindered Vietnamese export products to enter the Japanese market, the most important export market for Vietnam.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Information Center has quoted the latest statistics of the General Department of Customs as saying that the export turnover in the first half of May 2013 was $5.11 billion, down by 5 percent in comparison with the second half of April.

The export turnover of the foreign invested enterprises, which churn out 60 percent of the total exports of Vietnam, was also modest in the first half of May, $3.14 billion, a decrease of 6.5 percent over the second half of April.

In the first half of May 2013, the Vietnamese total export turnover decreased by $327 million with the sharp decreases in the turnover of the key export items. The export turnover of transport -- means and vehicle parts reduced by $159 million, equipment and machinery parts decreased by $46 million and steel products by $39 million.

The rapid fired bad news about rice export have come. No proper solution has been found to stop the export price decreases and protect farmers, though a lot of meetings and workshops were gathered to discuss the matter.

The information center has informed that Vietnam exported 2.38 million tons of rice by May 16, 2013. Meanwhile, only 233,645 tons were exported in the first half of May, which was lower than the exports in the same period of the two months before, 700 tons a month.

However, the bigger problem was that the rice export price has decreased dramatically to the 10 month deepest low to $410 per ton, or 5 percent lower than the average level of $429 in the month before and 7 percent lower than the $438 per ton threshold in last May.

According to the Vietnam Food Association, Vietnamese exporters have to lower the export prices to obtain more buyers. The Vietnamese rice export price is just a little higher than the $395 per ton level in July 2012 and $387 per ton in September 2010.

Meanwhile, experts have warned that the rice price in the world would not increase in the coming months because of the profuse supply. Thailand and India, the two big rice exporters, still have high inventories, and they are very likely to try to clear the inventories, which would affect the world’s market.

The fall in the export turnover have occurred not only with rice, but with other farm produce as well. The coffee export turnover by May 15 decreased sharply by $299, or 17 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year.

The seafood exports brought $2.206 billion in turnover, down by 5.6 percent, and forestry product exports brought $2.105 billion, up by 10 percent.

SGTT