HCM City enjoys impressive growth in import-export turnover

HCM City's foreign trade rises 18.4 percent year on year in Q1 to nearly 17.4 billion USD. (Photo: VNA)

Despite suffering the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict which affects international trade, import and export activities of Ho Chi Minh city still achieved impressive growth in the first quarter of this year.

Statistics from the municipal Statistics Department showed that the city’s foreign trade was valued at nearly 17.4 billion USD between January and March, up 18.4 percent year on year.

The city’s export value hit nearly 11.9 billion USD in the period, an increase of 3.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Of the figure, the FDI sector accounted for the highest proportion of more than 6.5 billion USD, followed by the non-State and State sectors with more than 3.2 billion USD and 564.4 million USD, respectively.

In terms of export structure, the group of industrial products saw the highest export value, reaching 7.4 billion USD, up 19.1 percent over the same period and making up 75.3 percent of the combined export turnover. They included such items as computers, electronic products and components, textiles and garments, machinery, and other types of equipment.

Notably, the group of agricultural products recorded a turnover of over 1.1 billion USD, up 54 percent year on year and accounting for 11.7 percent of the city’s total export value while the group of aquatic products had export earnings of 270 million USD, up 70 percent.

During the three-month period, China was the biggest buyer of HCM city’s enterprises with over 2.5 billion USD in revenue. It was followed by the United States and Japan with 1.6 billion USD and 701.8 billion USD, respectively.

In March alone, export earnings were estimated at nearly 4.6 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 42.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the city’s import turnover was up 30.6 percent, hitting nearly 6.8 billion USD./.