Production materials account for 94.1% of imported goods
According to data from the Statistics Department (Ministry of Finance), in general, in 8 months of 2026, the total import and export turnover of goods reached 770.14 billion USD, the highest level in 8 months to date, an increase of 28.7% compared to the same period last year. Of which exports increased by 22.4%; imports increased by 35.3%. Trade balance of goods with a trade deficit of 20.46 billion USD.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Director of the Statistics Department, the structure of import commodity groups in the first 8 months of 2026 is as follows: Production materials group reached 372.04 billion USD, accounting for 94.1%, of which machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts group accounted for 57.6%; raw materials, fuel, and materials group accounted for 36.5%. Consumer goods group reached 23.26 billion USD, accounting for 5.9%.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang - an economic expert - said that it is necessary to look at the trade deficit figure in relation to the structure of imported goods, instead of just looking at the scale of the trade deficit.
A noteworthy point is that most imported goods today are not the group of goods serving final consumption. The group of production materials in 8 months accounted for 94.1% of total import turnover, the group of consumer goods only accounted for 5.9%. This structure shows a significant part of the foreign currency flow being used to import inputs for production. This is a point that needs special attention when assessing the current trade deficit situation.
From a positive perspective, this expert believes that the sharp increase in imports of machinery, equipment, and raw materials may reflect the need to expand production, invest and prepare capacity for new supply chains. When businesses increase imports of equipment and raw materials to serve production, the impact of this commodity flow does not stop at the trade balance but also relates to domestic production capacity.
However, the question is how much the amount of imported goods is converted into domestic production capacity and added value. If the economy imports a lot of machinery, equipment and raw materials, but domestic production still mainly stops at processing and assembly, the value retained in the economy will not be commensurate with the scale of trade.
At that time, export turnover may increase rapidly, but import demand for inputs also increases sharply, putting pressure on the trade balance. This is also a problem directly related to the capacity of domestic enterprises.
Improving internal production capacity for businesses
In the coming time, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang believes that Vietnam should not only focus on narrowing the number of imports, but more importantly, must improve domestic production capacity, gradually reducing dependence on raw materials, components and machinery from outside.
It is necessary to promote the development of supporting industries, especially in industries with large export turnover but heavily dependent on imported raw materials and accessories.
When domestic enterprises can produce more intermediate products, components, spare parts and raw materials, the value created domestically will increase, while reducing input import pressure.
In addition, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thuong Lang said that the State needs to have policies to support businesses to invest in technology innovation, improve management capacity and meet international standards. Support should not only stop at capital but also be linked to the actual needs of each industry and each supply chain, thereby creating conditions for domestic businesses to become direct suppliers for large corporations.
From another perspective, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet - economic expert, lecturer at the University of Economics (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) said that Vietnam needs to select and focus resources on areas that can form its own advantages, in which deep-processing agriculture is a noteworthy direction. To do this, it is necessary to form a linkage chain from raw material areas, cooperatives, purchasing enterprises, logistics to processing and bringing products to the market.
When agricultural products increase in value right in the domestic market, benefits will be distributed throughout the chain, from farmers to businesses. Improving processing capacity also opens up opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to promote exports of high value-added products, thereby gradually narrowing the gap with the FDI sector" - Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet recommended.
