Foreign-invested companies shipped 80 percent of Vietnam’s exports in the first quarter of 2026. They sent out $98.5 billion in goods, up 33 percent. Vietnamese-owned firms exported $24.5 billion, less than a fifth of the total and 17 percent lower than a year earlier.
Put another way, four of every five dollars of exports came from foreign firms. Total exports reached $122.9 billion, up about 19 percent.
The General Statistics Office said on April 4 that the economy grew 7.83 percent year on year in the quarter, against 7.07 percent in the first quarter of 2025. That was a slowdown from 8.46 percent in the final quarter of 2025, and well short of the government’s full-year goal of at least 10 percent.
Where the growth came from
Services supplied just over half of the quarter’s growth and expanded 8.18 percent. Industry and construction accounted for 44 percent and grew 8.92 percent. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries added less than 6 percent.
Manufacturing grew 9.73 percent and alone delivered a third of the growth. Electronic component output jumped more than 30 percent. The industrial production index rose 9 percent, its best first-quarter result in five years.
Retail sales and consumer services were up nearly 11 percent. International arrivals hit 6.76 million, a record for a first quarter. Inflation is rising, though: consumer prices averaged 3.5 percent higher in the quarter and 4.65 percent higher by March, the highest monthly reading in nearly three years. The government’s full-year target is 4.5 percent.
Foreign money keeps coming
Registered foreign direct investment reached $15.2 billion, up nearly 43 percent. Among 904 newly approved projects, registered capital topped $10.2 billion, 2.4 times a year earlier. Actual disbursements were $5.4 billion, up 9 percent and the highest first-quarter figure in five years. Singapore provided over half of the money and South Korea 36 percent. Nearly 70 percent of new FDI went into manufacturing.
Trade swung to a $3.6 billion deficit, reversing last year’s surplus. Imports jumped 27 percent, and foreign firms raised their purchases of machinery and components by more than 45 percent.
The statistics office warned that Middle East tensions could push up oil and raw material prices in the second quarter. Vietnam’s manufacturers lean heavily on imported inputs. On the US side, the effective tariff rate on Vietnamese goods stands at roughly 16 percent under Section 122, after the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA framework. In March the US Trade Representative opened a Section 301 investigation covering Vietnam and 14 other countries over what it called “structural excess capacity in manufacturing.” Goods transshipped to dodge duties face a further 40 percent penalty. The US trade deficit with Vietnam reached $145.7 billion in 2025.
More than 57,000 new firms registered in the quarter, up nearly 60 percent, while over 30,000 businesses left the market each month.
