Vietnam has obtained a trade surplus of US$19.1 billion in 2020, representing a record high figure over five years in a row, the General Statistics Office announced on December 27. 

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam has secured
a trade surplus of US$19 billion, a record high figure
over five years in a row. (Illustrative image)

The country earned US$281.5 billion from exports, up 6.5% and spent US$262.4 billion on imports, up 3.6%. Overall, its total trade revenue reached US$543.9 billion for the whole year, or a year-on-year increase of 5.1%.

It is impressive that the trade surplus has been achieved in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic taking its heavy toll on all economies, including Vietnam, said Nguyen Viet Phong, a senior GSO official.

“The trade surplus means we have capitalized on free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed with its external partners, especially the EU-Vietnam trade agreement, to boost exports,” said Phong.

According to the GSO official, the export surplus can be seen as a bright spot in the overall economic landscape, significantly contributing to the country’s economic growth in 2020, and having a positive impact on the exchange rate and foreign exchange reserves that Vietnam needs to support COVID-post economic recovery in 2021.

Phong noted there were 31 groups of commodities that raked in over US$1 billion from exports each, accounting for 91.9% of the total export turnover. Of them six products earned more than US$10 billion each, making up 64.3%.

Regarding the structure of export commodities in 2020, while the group of heavy industrial goods and minerals saw the export turnover rise up 11.3% to US$152.5 billion, the group of agro-forestry-fisheries products brought back US$28.7 billion, down nearly 2%.

The United States remained the largest export market of Vietnam, consuming US$76.4 billion worth of Vietnamese goods, up 24.5%. It was followed by China, the EU, ASEAN, Japan and the Republic of Korea.