Vietnam posts 1.9bln USD trade surplus in first five months

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), export turnover reached 99.36 billion USD, down 1.7 percent year-on-year.

The domestic sector’s export value was 33.3 billion USD, up 10.4 percent compared to the same period last year, while the FDI sector’s exports, including crude oil, were valued at 66.06 billion USD, down 6.9 percent.

Commodities seeing strong growth in export value during the period included machinery, equipment, tools, and spare parts with 25 percent; computers, electronic products, and components with 22.1 percent; rice with 17.2 percent; coffee with 2.9 percent; and cashew nuts with 2.2 percent.

Those with declining turnover were telephones and components (8.8 percent), textiles (14.5 percent), footwear (4.6 percent), fruit and vegetables (10.3 percent), rubber (29.6 percent), and pepper (17.9 percent).

Import value in the first five months, meanwhile, reached 97.48 billion USD, down 3.8 percent year-on-year, GSO said.

The US remained the largest importer of Vietnamese goods in the period, with turnover reaching 24.6 billion USD, up 8.2 percent. It was followed by China with turnover of 16.3 billion USD, up 20.1 percent.

Vietnam’s exports to the EU and ASEAN fell 12 percent and 13.4 percent, with turnover of 12.9 billion USD and 9.4 billion USD, respectively.

After posting solid growth in the first quarter, Vietnam’s trade picture has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic since April. Export turnover in April was just 19.7 billion USD, down 18.4 percent against March and 3.5 percent year-on-year.