Vietnam’s export turnover in the first five months of this year reachedmore than 34.7 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 32.8percent, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on May 26.
During this period, garment exports topped the list of hard currencyearners with over 5.1 billion USD, a rise of 35.6 percent year-on-year.The United States remained Vietnam’s largest importer, followed by theEuropean Union and Japan.
Except for crude oil,footwear exports ranked second in the list with 2.37 billion USD inrevenues, enjoying a year-on-year rise of 31.8 percent. Footwear wasfollowed by aquatic products with revenues of 2.1 billion USD, up 31percent.
Export revenues of rubber and coffee wereover one billion USD and 1.77 billion USD, respectively, more thandouble the same period last year.
According to DeputyMinister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien, higher pricedcommodities, thanks to the recovery of the global economy, were the mainreason for Vietnam’s export growth, especially to European markets.
In contrast to the optimistic signal of exports, imports rosestrongly. Until the end of May, the whole country imported 41.3 billionUSD, up 29.5 percent from the same period of last year, pushing thetrade deficit to 6.5 billion USD and accounting for 18.8 percent of thegross export value.
Deputy Minister Bien also askedexport businesses to establish new markets, engage in trade promotionactivities, make the most of free trade agreements, and especially toprioritise the use of domestic fuel, raw materials and equipment togradually reduce trade deficit./.