HCMC – Vietnam exported goods worth US$49.44 billion in the first two months of the year, while spending US$46.62 billion on imports during the period, resulting in a trade surplus of US$2.82 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, the country ran a trade deficit of US$0.3 billion during the same period last year, the local media reported.

Between January and February, the country’s import-export value totaled an estimated US$96.06 billion, down 13.2% year-on-year.

In the first two months of the year, eight items recorded export revenue of over US$1 billion each, accounting for nearly 70% of the total export value.

On the import side, 13 commodities achieved over US$1 billion in import value each.

The United States was Vietnam’s biggest goods importer in January-February, spending an estimated US$13.1 billion on Vietnamese goods, while China was the country’s largest supplier, with a value of US$14.6 billion.

Vietnam posted a trade surplus of US$4.8 billion with the European Union in the first two months of 2023, up 1.8% year-on-year, while reporting a trade deficit of US$6.4 billion with China, down 39.8% against the year-ago period.

To fulfill the target of increasing export revenue in 2023 by some 6% year-on-year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has told local exporters to proactively ramp up the competitiveness of their products and diversify export markets.