Of the six ASEAN nations, only Vietnam posted an increase in exports for 2020, up 7% to US$282.66 billion, according to The Straits Times.

The Malaysian newspaper quoted data from the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) as saying that exports from six ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, fell 2.2% last year compared with 2019, with total exports of US$1.35 trillion.

JETRO said Vietnam's exports to Japan dropped by 5.2%, but exports to the United States rose by 25.7% and to China by 18%.

However, Vietnam's growing trade surplus with Washington and Hanoi's interventions in the foreign exchange market prompted the US Treasury Department last December to label the country as a currency manipulator for the first time.

Among the other ASEAN nations mentioned in the report, the Philippines logged a 10.1% fall in exports, followed by a contraction of 6% in Thailand, 4.1% in Singapore and 2.6% each in Malaysia and Indonesia.

It said the combined trade surplus of the six countries tripled to US$133.66 billion, as easing energy prices and shrinking domestic demand led to steeper declines in imports than exports.

Thailand's trade surplus surged 144.5%, compared with an 83.5% increase for Vietnam, Singapore 43.9% and Malaysia 25.6%. The Philippines narrowed its trade deficit by 46.3% to US$21.84 billion while Indonesia chalked up a trade surplus of US$21.74 billion, a turnaround from a deficit of US$3.6 billion in 2019.

Singapore accounted for 27.4% of the six countries' total trade by value last year, followed by Vietnam at 21.3%, Thailand 17.1%, Malaysia 16.5%, Indonesia 11.9% and the Philippines 5.8%.