Vietnam continues to enjoy large trade surplus in UK market
Vietnam enjoyed a US$1.5 billion trade surplus with the UK for the first four months of 2018 as the country exported US$1.75 billion worth of goods to the market and imported US$238 million.
 |
| Illustrative Image |
Meanwhile, Vietnam imported US$185 million worth of goods from the UK, up 17.6% year on year, resulting in a big trade imbalance.
From January until the end of April, Vietnam mainly exported to the UK telephones and spare parts, footwear, garment, and aquatic products, with respective export value exceeding US$705 million, US$201 million, US$215 million and US$78 million.
At the same time, Vietnam imported from the UK US$67 million worth of machineries, equipment and spare part, US$45 million of pharmaceuticals and more than US$13 million of chemicals.
Earlier in 2013-2017, the UK was among the 15 largest trade partners of Vietnam with average annual growth of nearly 5%. Two-way trade grew a total 44% in the review period to US$6.15 billion in 2017 from US$4.27 billion in 2013.
Last year, the UK was the eighth biggest export market of Vietnam, one position higher than 2016. Meanwhile, it was Vietnam’s 26th biggest import market, down two positions compared to the previous year.
In the past five years, Vietnam’s exports to the UK surged 46.4% to US$5.42 billion, accounting for 2.5% of the country’s total export volume.
In the same period, the Southeast Asian’s import revenue in the UK market increased 30%, reaching US$733 million in 2017.
Vietnam continuously enjoyed a large trade surplus with the UK, with last year’s figure hitting US$4.68 billion.
The UK is also the third biggest trade partner of Vietnam among EU countries.
