Trade surplus headed for record level
Trade surplus headed for record level
Vietnam achieved a trade surplus of $20.1 billion in the first 11 months of 2020 as exports to the U.S. and China increased sharply.
Workers manufacture garment products at a factory in southern Long An Province. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.
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Exports grew by 5.4 percent to $254.6 billion and imports by 1.5 percent to $234.5 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.
Both heavy industry and light industry products saw increases, with double-digit rises for computers-electronics and machinery-equipment. But exports of forestry, agriculture and aquaculture products declined.
Exports to the EU, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Japan decreased by 3-10 percent. But exports to the U.S., which remained Vietnam’s largest customer, rose 25.7 percent to $70 billion, and to China by 16 percent to $43 billion.
China was the largest seller to Vietnam, with imports from that country rising by 8 percent to $73.9 billion. Imports from the E.U. rose by 4 percent, while purchases from South Korea, ASEAN, Japan, and the U.S. fell.
Imports of computer-electronics, smartphones and smartphone parts, plastic products, and chemicals rose, while those of textile-garments, iron and steel, cars, and base metals fell.
Vietnam has been achieving a trade surplus for the last four years, including a record $9.9 billion in 2019.
