Vietnam exports rise 6% in first four months

Of this, the domestic economic enterprises saw a year-on-year surge of 2.9% in export value to US$15.11 billion in the first four months, while the foreign direct invested firms had a year-on-year growth of 7.3% in export value to US$37.76 billion.

GSO experts said this was a result of the positive growth of national exports, in the face of a drop in crude oil exports by 52% to US$678 million in the first four months, due to the strong reduction in world oil prices.

Meanwhile, 30 key export products saw a strong increase in export value in the first four months. These included vegetable and fruit with a growth of 43.3% to US$741 million; telephone and its components, up 23.8% to US$474 million; gemstone and precious metals, up by 22.8% to US$260 million; and machine and equipment, up by 15.8% to US$2.86 billion, in addition to petrol products, up by 12.6% to US$259 million; and handbags, hats and umbrellas, up by 10.8% to US$1.36 billion.

However, some other key export products faced low growth or even reduction in export value such as seafood (up by 3.8%), bamboo and rattan (up by 2.6%), footwear (up by 4.8%), and tea (down by 14.2%), in addition to cassava (down by 23.5%).

The GSO also reported in the first four months of this year, the national import value reduced 1.2% year-on-year to US$51.4 billion, including US$20.7 billion from domestic enterprises and US$30.7 billion from FDI enterprises.

Therefore, the nation gained a trade surplus of US$1.46 billion in the first four months of this year.

The products which witnessed a big reduction in import value included animal feed (down by 17.7%), petrol (33.3%), and completely built-up automobiles (23.5%).

The office said value of imports from China fell strongly to US$14.7 billion in the first four months, reducing trade deficit with China by 12.7% year-on-year to US$8.9 billion.