Vietnam’s record high trade surplus, not necessarily good news

Vietnam’s trade surplus up to the end of October this year was US$24.61 billion, two and a half times bigger than it was over the same period last year, VN Express is reporting. But overall trade is down and in this context, this isn’t great news.

Key takeaways:

• It looks a lot like exports are being produced with raw material stores rather than new imports; and
• With imports down, it suggests future exports will be down too