According to data from www.worldbank.org and information from the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Vietnam's foreign exchange reserves have increased sharply in recent years. Specifically, Vietnam's foreign exchange reserves increased from  USD 12.5 billion in 2010 to USD 25.3 billion in 2015, to  USD 55.5 billion in 2018 and  USD 105 billion in 2021.

Firstly, after decreasing (from USD 16.5 billion in 2009 to USD 12.5 billion in 2010) due to the impact of the financial crisis and global recession, foreign exchange reserves from 2011 to date have continuously increased. The current scale is nearly 8.8 times higher than in 2010, nearly 3.9 times higher than in 2015.

Secondly, despite being heavily affected by Covid-19 from 2020, foreign exchange reserves have continued to increase with a rather large increase.

Thirdly, the size of Vietnam's foreign exchange reserves is currently ranked quite well (5th in Southeast Asia, 14th in Asia and 24th in the world), higher than the rank of total GDP and much higher than the ranking of GDP per capita.

Fourthly, if from 2018 and earlier, the amount of foreign exchange reserves compared to the number of months of imports remained low (2010 was 1.8 months, 2015 was 2.1 months, 2018 was 2.8 months), then from 2019 has passed the 3-month mark (2019 was 3.7 months, 2020 was 4.3 months, 2021 was 3.8 months), which means that Vietnam has crossed the safe line in terms of payment in trade relations with foreign countries.

It is expected that foreign exchange reserves will continue to increase in the near future, thanks to the continued exploitation of factors that increase foreign exchange reserves. The trade balance target will continue to have a surplus for the 7th year in a row, reaching USD 4-8 billion according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade or USD 5.2-6.9 billion, higher than USD 4.1 billion in 2021. Remittances over the past 3 years have increased by 4.4%/year, expected to reach USD 18.9 billion in 2022.

Kylie Nguyen