Vietnam’s January exports up 50.5 percent year-on-year

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s goods exports valued at 27.7 billion USD, up 0.2 percent from the previous month and 50.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the latest data unveiled by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO).

The GSO largely attributed the sharp year-on-year increase to multinational electronics producer Samsung of the Republic of Korea (RoK) stepping up production and export of its new Galaxy S21 series.

In January, six items enjoyed export revenues exceeding the 1 billion USD benchmark, accounting for 67.3 percent of the total exports.

Best performers included the heavy industry and mining sector which earned 15.6 billion USD in export revenue, up 71.6 percent year-on-year; and the light industry and handicrafts earning 9.7 billion USD from export, up 32.3 percent.

Agriculture and forestry exported 1.8 billion USD worth of products this month, up 21.4 percent year-on-year; while fisheries earned 600 million USD, up 19.6 percent.

The US remained the largest importer of Vietnamese products in January, with a total of 7.5 billion USD worth of shipments, up 57.4 percent from a year earlier.

It was followed by China (5.8 billion USD, up 111.6 percent), the EU (2.8 billion USD, 14.8 percent), ASEAN (2.3 billion USD, 31.9 percent), and Japan (1.9 billion USD, 22,7 percent).

Vietnam’s imports, meanwhile, stood at 26.4 billion USD in January, representing a fall of 5.4 percent compared to December but a growth of 41 percent from the same period last year. Four items reported import turnover of more than 1 billion USD, making up 50.6 percent of the total imports.

China remained Vietnam’s biggest supplier of products, with turnover of 9.6 billion USD, 72.7 percent higher than the figure a year earlier.

It was followed by the RoK (5.1 billion USD, up 29.3 percent), ASEAN (3.4 billion USD, 63.3 percent), Japan (2 billion USD, 52.9 percent), and the EU (1.3 billion USD, 23.3 percent).

Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.3 billion USD this month, with the domestic economic sector recording a trade deficit of 1.8 billion USD while the FDI sector (including crude oil) boasting a trade surplus of 3.1 billion USD.

The GSO also announced that total retail sales of goods and services in January rose by 3.7 percent month-on-month and 6.4 percent year-on-year to 479.9 trillion VND.

The number of foreign tourist arrivals totalled over 17,700, up 9 percent month-on-month and down 99.1 percent year-on-year./.