Viet Nam ran a trade surplus of US$500 million in September and the balance of trade may be improved by year end, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) reported that in September, total trade turnover hit US$ 53.5 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent. Export turnover was US$ 27 billion and import value reached US$ 26.5 billion.

In the first nine months, total export turnover reached US$ 483.17 billion, representing a sharp year-on-year growth of 24.4 percent. Meanwhile, export turnover was US$ 240.52 billion, up 18.8% and import value touched US$ 242.65 billion, up 30.5 percent.

In January-September period, 31 commodities joined the over US$ 1 billion export club. They accounted for 92.5 percent of total export turnover in which six commodities earned over US$ 10 billion of export turnover each, occupying 63.2 percent of Viet Nam’s total export turnover.

Key exports included mobiles and spare parts, electronics products, computers, machines, footwear, garment and textiles.

The U.S. remained the largest export market of Viet Nam with US$69.8 billion, up 27.6 percent. It was followed by China US$38.5 billion, up 18.3 percent, the EU US$28.8 billion, up 11.6 percent, ASEAN US$20.6 billion, up 21.2 percent, the Republic of Korea (RoK) US$16.1 billion, up 11.4 percent and Japan US$14.7 billion, up 5.1 percent. 

On the other hand, in the reviewed period, 36 items reported over US$ 1 billion of import value each, accounting for 90.4% of total import value.

China was the biggest import market of Viet Nam with US$ 81.3 billion, up 41.1%, followed by the RoK with US$ 40.2 billion, up 21.6%; ASEAN with US$ 30.7 billion, up 41.2%, Japan with US$ 16.3 billion, up 11.6 percent, EU with US$ 12.6 billion, up 19 percent, and the U.S. with US$ 11.7 billion, up 12.7 percent.

Despite Viet Nam’s trade surplus in September, the country continued to ran a trade deficit of US$ 2.13 billion in the first nine months due to the high trade gap in previous months. Specifically, domestic sector reported a trade deficit of US$21 billion while FDI sector gained a trade surplus of US$ 18.87 billion, including crude oil.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade attributed to more import of input materials for domestic production at higher costs following the recovery of the world economy to Viet Nam’s trade gap in January-September period. The ministry also blamed ocean freight rate increases and negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic since this June. Particularly, in June, the COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces. In the July-September period, the fourth wave of COVID-19 resurgence badly hit southern localities.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Thanh Hai was upbeat about trade balance by year end even trade surplus.

The MoIT forecast that Viet Nam may earn US$ 313 billion of trade turnover in 2021, up 10.7% against 2020, surpassing the Government’s present goal of 4-5%./.