The opening five months of the year has seen the United States become the nation’s leading export market, with export turnover of US$24.6 billion, representing an annual increase of 8.2%.

This comes after the US had one of the highest export growth rates last year in comparison to the country’s other export markets, with a 29.1% rise in terms of export growth from 2018, making up 23.2% of the nation’s total exports.

Indeed, the country’s total export and import turnover throughout the reviewed period stood at a figure of US$196.84 billion, representing a 2.8% fall on-year, according to statistics released by the  General Statistics Office.

Total export turnover reached a total of US$99.36 billion, an annual decline of 1.7%, while imports stood at US$97.48 billion, a drop of 4% on-year. 

The novel coronavirus has negatively affected many of the nation’s major trading partners, especially with regard to import and export, according to the office.

Elsewhere, Vietnamese exports to China reached a figure of US$16.3 billion, whilst local exports to Japan were at US$8.1 billion, and the Republic of Korea at US$7.7 billion.

During the five-month period, a total of 17 product groups racked up over US$1 billion worth of export value each, including through phones and components, electronics, garment and textiles, machinery, footwear, and vehicles.

However, those that recorded plummeting turnover include telephones and components ( 9%), garments and textiles (15%), footwear (5%), fruit and vegetables (10%), rubber (30%), and pepper (18%).