Việt Nam turns the tide with strong trade surplus

Việt Nam turns the tide with strong trade surplus

The country recorded a high surplus of the current account balance, which reached US$8.72 billion in the second quarter of 2025, an increase of 120 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2025.

Net foreign direct investment in the second quarter of 2025 still achieved positive results with $5.26 billion, up 45 per cent compared to Q1 2025. Photo vneconomy.vn

Việt Nam has reversed five consecutive quarters of balance of payments deficits, posting a surplus of nearly US$1.49 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2025, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reported.

The improvement was driven mainly by a high current account surplus, which reached $8.72 billion, up 120 per cent from the first quarter of 2025.

This was the second highest level of the current account balance in the past six quarters, only behind the third quarter of 2024, reflecting the positive contribution from the merchandise trade surplus and current account transfer flows.

In the components of the current account, merchandise exports at free on board (FOB) prices reached $117.03 billion, while FOB imports reached $107.11 billion, creating a merchandise trade surplus of $9.91 billion — a 24.9 per cent increase compared to the first quarter of 2025.

However, the service balance continued to record a deficit of $3.13 billion, a sharp increase compared to $1.64 billion in the first quarter of 2025, although it improved from $3.8 billion in the same period last year.

The SBV’s data also showed that the financial balance in the second quarter of 2025 continued to have a deficit of $4.8 billion, deeper than $3.51 billion in Q1 2025, but an improvement from $7.3 billion in the same period last year.

According to the data, net foreign direct investment (FDI) in the second quarter of 2025 remained positive at $5.26 billion, up 45 per cent from Q1 2025, just behind Q4 2024 ($6.29 billion), reflecting foreign investors’ confidence in the investment environment in Việt Nam.

However, indirect investment still recorded a deficit of $690 million in Q2 2025, compared to $920 million in Q1 2025. Although still negative, this deficit improved significantly compared to the periods with the strongest capital withdrawals in Q2 2024 and Q4 2024, which were $2.19 billion and $2.04 billion respectively.

The data indicated that in mid-2024, capital withdrawal pressures from foreign investors in financial markets — including listed stocks, government bonds and fund certificates — were high. By the first half of 2025, although indirect investment flows still tended to withdraw, the scale gradually decreased, showing that the market had stabilised in terms of investor psychology and expectations.

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