VN earns massive export turnover in five months
(VNA) Vietnam’s export turnover in the first five months of this year reached more than 34.7 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 32.8 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on May 26.
During this period, garment exports topped the list of hard currency earners 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 the European Union and Japan.
Except for crude oil, footwear exports ranked second in the list with 2.37 billion USD in revenues, enjoying a year-on-year rise of 31.8 percent. Footwear was followed by aquatic products with revenues of 2.1 billion USD, up 31 percent.
Export revenues of rubber and coffee were over one billion USD and 1.77 billion USD, respectively, more than double the same period last year.
According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien, higher priced commodities, thanks to the recovery of the global economy, were the main reason for Vietnam’s export growth, especially to European markets.
In contrast to the optimistic signal of exports, imports rose strongly. Until the end of May, the whole country imported 41.3 billion USD, up 29.5 percent from the same period of last year, pushing the trade deficit to 6.5 billion USD and accounting for 18.8 percent of the gross export value.
Deputy Minister Bien also asked export businesses to establish new markets, engage in trade promotion activities, make the most of free trade agreements, and especially to prioritise the use of domestic fuel, raw materials and equipment to gradually reduce trade deficit./.
