In November, while exports decreased, imports increased compared to October. However, in the first eleven months of the year, both exports and imports recorded positive growth and import-export turnover approached US$500 billion.

Import and export are filled with activities at the end of the year. Photo: T. Binh. 

According to preliminary information on the import and export situation in November of 2020 released by the General Department of Customs on the morning of December 14, the export value in November reached more than US$25 billion, down 7.4% from October. Meanwhile, the import value reached US$24.7 billion, up 1.5%.

In November, most of Vietnam's major export commodity groups fell sharply compared to October 2020.

Specifically, phones and accessories reached US$4.4 billion, down 18.4%; computers, electronic products and components reached US$3.85 billion, down 9.4%; textiles reached more than US$2.2 billion, down 12.7%.

However, in the eleven months, the country’s total export turnover gained approximately US$255 billion, up 5.5% year-on-year.

On the import side, the groups of "billion dollars" still maintained a slight increase compared to October.

In particular, computers, electronic products and components reached nearly US$6.3 billion, up 1.6%.

Besides, machines, equipment, tools and spare parts earned US$3.4 billion; phones and accessories nearly US$2 billion, up 2%; and fabric more than US$1 billion, up 0.8%.

Accumulated in the eleven months, total import turnover reached nearly US$235 billion, up 1.7% year-on-year.

Thus, in the eleven months, the country’s total import-export turnover reached approximately US$490 billion. Of which, trade surplus remained a record of about US$20 billion.

With the current scale and the growth rate in recent months, it is likely that the import and export turnover for the whole year 2020 will reach about US$540 billion, about US$23 billion higher than 2019 (last year it reached US$517.26 billion), an encouraging result amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.