January foreign trade turnover decreases by 16.2 per cent on-year
January foreign trade turnover decreases by 16.2 per cent on-year
According to Vietnam Customs, the export-import value of the whole country in the first month of this year reached $36.62 billion, 18.4 per cent less than in the previous month, and down 16.2 per cent against the same period last year. 
Export-import activity was a lot more sluggish in this January due to the Lunar New Year holiday
The total export value reached $18.2 billion, reducing 19.4 per cent compared to the last month of 2019. Along with that, the total import value was $18.42 billion, down 17.4 per cent on-year. This brought the trade balance of the nation in January 2020 to minus $232 million.
As stated by Vietnam Customs, the decline was the result of the Lunar New Year holiday dragging down January. Therefore, the working days during the whole month were only 16.
The Chinese market, in particular, had an export-import turnover of $8.29 billion towards Vietnam, shedding 25.8 per cent compared to December 2019. Of this, export value was $2.75 billion, 35.3 per cent lower than in the previous month, and imports reached $5.54 billion, down 20.1 per cent.
Vietnam's largest export commodities in January were crude oil and metal ores. On the import side, Vietnam's main goods categories were oil and gas, computer, electronics, parts and components, machinery and equipment, cars, and steel.
Accordingly, from December 16, 2019 to January 15, the customs authority has detected a total of 753 cases of violation in export and import activities, with the value of infringing goods estimated at VND370 billion ($16 million). The state's budgetary revenue from penalties on export-import violations for the whole year of 2019 was VND23 trillion ($1 billion) and the customs authorities transferred 12 cases to other agencies for prosecution.
