Statistics showed that exports reached USD 22.4 billion in March, representing a rise of 61.1 percent over the previous month.
This helped Vietnam return to a trade surplus after running a deficit of USD 800 million in January and USD 84 million in February.
Still, the surplus of USD 536 million was much lower than the USD 2.8 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2018.
The domestic sector reported a trade deficit of USD 7.04 billion in the period, while foreign-invested firms posted a trade surplus of USD 7.57 billion.
January-March exports totaled more than USD 58.5 billion, up 4.7 percent. Exports from the foreign investment sector (including crude oil) were worth USD 41.5 billion, contributing nearly 71 percent of the country’s total export value.
The quarter saw nine products with export value of more than USD 1 billion which altogether accounted for 70.8 percent of total export value.
Exports of garments and textiles were estimated at USD 7.3 billion (up 7.3 percent), electronics, computers and parts USD 6.9 billion (up 9.3 percent), footwear products USD 4 billion (up 15.3 percent), equipment and parts USD 3.9 billion (up 5.2 percent) and wood products USD 2.3 billion (up 17 percent).
Phone and components posted the highest export value, worth USD 12.1 billion, but dropping by 4.3 percent over the same period last year.
Seafood exports decreased by 1.4 percent to USD 1.4 billion while other major agricultural products also saw declines, such as fruit and vegetables (down 8.6 percent to USD 885 million), coffee (23.8 percent to USD 830 million), cashew nuts (17.2 percent to USD 625 million) and rice (23.6 percent to USD 567 million).
The US remained Vietnam’s biggest export market, spending USD 13 billion, up by 26 percent, followed by the European Union with USD 10.2 billion, up by 2.5 percent, and China with USD 7.6 billion, down 7.4 percent.
Vietnam spent USD 57.98 billion on importing goods in the first quarter, up 8.9 percent.
Major import products were mainly equipment and materials for production, including electronic products, computers and components (worth USD 11.7 billion, up 12.2 percent), equipment (USD 8.7 billion, up 15.1 percent) and fabric (USD 2.8 billion, up 6.4 percent).
China remained the largest import market during January-March with a value of USD 15 billion, an increase of 9.7 percent. The Republic of Korea came in second place by exporting USD 11.8 billion worth of goods to Vietnam, up 1.1 percent year-on-year, followed by ASEAN with USD 8.2 billion, up 10.1 percent.
The GSO’s General Director Nguyen Bich Lam said it was necessary to strengthen exports, enhance trade promotion and expand markets, especially for exports of agricultural products.
In addition, focus must be placed on controlling the quality of goods and imported equipment together with developing appropriate technical barriers to protect and encourage domestic production, Lam said.
Source: VNA