Harvesting coffee (Photo: VNA)
The domestic sector reported a trade deficit of USD13.3 billion in the period, while foreign-invested firms posted a trade balance of USD12.7 billion.
GSO statisticians blamed the return to a trade deficit on slowing growth of exports in May. In the first four months of the year, the country posted a surplus of USD771 million.
They said the country’s import-export turnover reached more than USD202 billion in the five-month period, a year-on-year rise of 7 percent. However, this growth rate was much lower than 19 percent and 17.5 percent seen in the same periods of 2018 and 2019, respectively, with key export items such as rice, coffee and cashew nuts posting turnover reductions of between 14 and 23 percent.
Phones and parts recorded the highest export turnover of approximately USD20 billion, accounting for 20 percent of total exports, up 3 percent year on year, followed by electronics, computers and components (USD12 billion, up 11 percent), garments (USD12.1 billion, up 10 percent) and footwear (USD7.1 billion, up 14 percent).
Other areas were equipment and parts with USD7 billion, up 6 percent year on year, wood and furniture (USD4 billion, up 18 percent) and vehicles and parts (USD3.6 billion, up 5 percent).
The US remained Vietnam's biggest export market in the period, spending nearly USD23 billion on Vietnamese goods, a yearly hike of 28 percent. The EU ranked second at USD17 billion, up 2 percent and China came third with USD14 billion, down 3 percent.
GSOs figures also showed that import turnover between January and May topped more than USD100 billion, surging 10 percent over the same period last year. The domestic sector hit USD44 billion, up 15 percent, while the foreign-invested sector hit nearly USD58 billion, up 7 percent.
China retained its position as Vietnam's largest source of imports with turnover of USD29.6 billion, with products recording significant growth including electronics, computers and components at 83 percent; machinery, equipment and spare parts at 28 percent and fabric at 13 percent.
The Republic of Korea came next with USD19.2 billion, up 1 percent, and ASEAN countries ranked third with USD14 billion, up 9 percent. Japan, the US and the EU followed.
GSO statisticians noted that Vietnam saw an increase of 46 percent in its trade deficit with China to total of USD16 billion in the period. The RoK hit USD11 billion, down 4 percent; and ASEAN was USD3.3 billion, up 26 percent./.