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| Most major export products saw an increase in export value compared to the same period last year, including telephone, garment, footwear, and wood and wooden products, in addition to seafood, rice, fruit and vegetables. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Hai |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam gained a trade surplus at US$900 million in the first two months of this year because of strong reduction in imports and regular increase of exports.
The General Statistics Office (GSO) said that in the first two months, national total import value had a year-on-year reduction at 6.6 per cent to $22.8 billion while the total export value gained a year-on-year increase of 2.9 per cent to $23.7 billion.
Viet Nam's imports decreased in most of the major markets against the same period last year. In particular, imports from China, the largest import market of Viet Nam, dropped by 5.6 per cent in the first two months to $7 billion, leading to the trade deficit between Viet Nam and China, which plunged 9.6 per cent year-on-year to $4.7 billion.
The import value to Viet Nam also fell by 26.6 per cent to $1.3 billion from the European Union (EU), 9.5 per cent to $1.9 billion from Japan, 7.6 per cent to $3.2 billion from ASEAN, and 4.8 per cent to $3.9 billion from South Korea; in addition to 4.2 per cent to $1 billion from the United States.
The foreign-invested economic sector witnessed reduction in imports during the first two months at 7.7 per cent year-on-year to $13.6 billion while the domestic economic sector's import value dropped by 4.8 per cent to $9.2 billion compared with the same period of last year.
During the first two months, machine, equipment and parts for production had the largest import value at $3.8 billion, a year-on-year reduction at 13.6 per cent.
The import value of petrol and oil products fell strongest by 34.8 per cent to $530 million due to a strong drop in the world crude oil price, though the import volume of petrol and oil products increased by 12.2 per cent to 1.7 million tonnes.
The GSO also reported that export value of foreign invested and domestic economic sectors gained a year-on-year increase of 2.3 per cent to $16.6 billion and 4.2 per cent to $7.1 billion, respectively.
Experts from the GSO said that an increase of the national total export value was due to the export contracts with traditional partners.
Most major export products saw an increase in export value compared to the same period last year, including telephone, garment, footwear, and wood and wooden products, in addition to seafood, rice, fruit and vegetables.
However, export value of crude oil witnessed a strong drop of 63 per cent to $250 million in the first two months against the same period of last year. Other products which plunged in export value included cassava and pepper. — VNS