Trade surplus hits record high of US$17 billion over nine-month period

Total merchandise import and export turnover during September was at an estimated US$51.5 billion, a rise of 15% over the same period from last year, bringing the overall nine-month import and export turnover to US$388.73 billion, representing an annual rise of 1.8%.

In terms of the record trade surplus recorded over the reviewed period, major contributions came from the foreign-invested sector.

The sector, which includes crude oil, ran a trade deficit of US$27.51 billion, while the domestic economic sector witnessed a trade deficit of US$10.52 billion.

With regard to the export and import of goods throughout the reviewed period, the GSO reported that export turnover was estimated to stand at US$202.86 billion, a rise of 4.2% on-year.

The nine-month period witnessed 30 items with an export turnover of over US$1 billion, account for 91.3% of the country’s overall export turnover. Among these, there were five items which recorded export turnover of more than US$10 billion, making up 59.8%.

Throughout the reviewed period, the United States remained the largest export market for local goods, with a turnover of US$54.8 billion, marking an annual increase of 22.9%. This was followed by China at US$31.9 billion, a rise of 12.7%, the EU at US$26 billion, down by 2.6%, ASEAN at US$17 billion, a fall of 12.5%, the Republic of Korea (RoK) at US$14.5 billion, a decline of 2%, and Japan at US$14.1 billion, a drop of 5.7%.

Furthermore, import turnover was estimated to have reached US$185.87 billion, representing a decline of 0.8% from the same period last year, with 32 import items valued at more than US$1 billion, making up 88.3% of total Vietnamese import turnover.

In terms of the import market, China represents the country’s largest import market throughout the nine-month period, with a turnover of US$56.8 billion, an annual rise of 2.7%.

The northern neighbour was trailed by the RoK at US$32.8 billion, ASEAN at US$21.8 billion, Japan at US$14.6 billion, the EU at US$10.8 billion, and the US at US$10.5 billion.