Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Of the six ASEAN nations, onlyVietnam posted an increase in exports for 2020, up 7 percent to 282.66 billionUSD, according to The Straits Times.
The Malaysian newspaper quoted data from the Japan ExternalTrade Organisation (JETRO) as saying that exports from six ASEAN countries,including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines andVietnam, fell 2.2 percent last year compared with 2019, with total exports of 1.35trillion USD.
JETROsaid Vietnam's exports to Japan dropped by 5.2 percent, but exports to theUnited States rose by 25.7 percent and to China by 18 percent.
However, Vietnam's growing trade surplus with Washington andHanoi's interventions in the foreign exchange market prompted the US TreasuryDepartment last December to label the country as a currency manipulator for thefirst time.
Amongthe other ASEAN nations mentioned in the report, the Philippines logged a 10.1 percentfall in exports, followed by a contraction of 6.0 percent in Thailand, 4.1 percentin Singapore and 2.6 percent each in Malaysia and Indonesia.
It said the combined trade surplus of the six countries tripled to 133.66billion USD, as easing energy prices and shrinking domestic demand led tosteeper declines in imports than exports.
Thailand's trade surplus surged 144.5 percent, compared with an 83.5 percentincrease for Vietnam, Singapore 43.9 and Malaysia 25.6. The Philippines narrowedits trade deficit by 46.3 percent to 21.84 billion USD while Indonesia chalkedup a trade surplus of 21.74 billion USD, a turnaround from a deficit of 3.6billion USD in 2019.
Singapore accounted for 27.4 percent of the six countries' total trade by valuelast year, followed by Vietnam at 21.3 percent, Thailand 17.1 percent, Malaysia16.5 percent, Indonesia 11.9 percent and the Philippines 5.8 percent./.
VNA
