Vietnam’s trade surplus hits 4 billion USD in H1

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of 4 billion USD in the first half of 2020, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

In January-June, the country’s total export-import turnover reached 238.4 billion USD, a year-on-year decline of 2.1 percent. Of which, exports were estimated at 121.2 billion USD, down 1.1 percent.

Statistics indicated that 34.1 percent of the export revenue was contributed by the domestic economic sector, while the remainder by the foreign investment sector.

In the six-month period, 22 commodities posted export turnover of over 1 billion USD, accounting for 86.2 percent of the total.

Especially, four items recorded export value of over 10 billion USD, namely mobile phones and spare parts (21.5 billion USD); electronics, computers and components (19.3 billion USD); garment-textile (12.8 billion USD); and machinery, equipment, and spare parts (10.3 billion USD).

Some farm produce posted a year-on-year decline in shipments such as fruits and vegetables (11.4 percent), rubber (27.8 percent), and pepper (19.1 percent).

However, the export of rice, coffee and cashew nuts increased in both volume and value. The turnover of rice rose 19.3 percent to 1.7 billion USD; coffee 2.5 percent to 1.6 billion USD; and cashew nuts 0.7 percent to 1.5 billion USD.

The US was the biggest export market of Vietnam in the period with 30.3 billion USD, up 10.3 percent year on year. China came second with 19.5 billion USD, up 17.4 percent, followed by the EU with 16.1 billion USD (down 8.8 percent), ASEAN 11.1 billion USD (down 14.2 percent), Japan 9.4 billion USD (down 2.3 percent), and the Republic of Korea 9.3 billion USD (up 2.3 percent)./.