Foreign trade rebound

Vietnam’s foreign trade rebounded strongly in March, with the total import- export value of US$66.73 billion, up 36.8% month- on-month and 14.7% year- on-year.

According to figures from the General Statistics Office, the total import-export value in the first quarter reached US$176.35 billion, rising 14.4% from the year-earlier period. Exports reached US$88.58 billion, up 12.9% year-on-year, and imports US$87.77 billion, up 15.9%. The country enjoyed a trade surplus of US$809 million in the period. The domestic sector suffered a trade deficit of US$6.16 billion while the foreign investment sector gained a surplus of U$6.97 billion. There were 15 commodities with export revenue of over US$1 billion each, of which five commodities earned revenue of over US$5 billion each, including smartphones and components ( US$14.23 billion), electronics, computers and parts ( US$13.05 billion), machinery and equipment ( US$9.91 billion), textiles and garments ( US$8.83 billion) and footwear ( US$5.28 billion).

The United States was the largest market for exports in the first quarter, generating US$25.2 billion. The second largest export market was China with US$13.7 billion, followed by ASEAN with US$8.1 billion, South Korea US$6.26 billion and Japan US$5.4 billion.

Meanwhile, China was the largest market for imports, supplying goods worth US$27.6 billion.

In the first quarter, the country enjoyed a surplus of US$7 billion in trade with the EU, while it suffered a deficit of US$14.3 billion in trade with China, US$10.4 billion with South Korea, US$3.3 billion with ASEAN and US$434 million with Japan.