Vietnam's total trade turnover reached US$88.16 billion in January, marking a 39% increase compared with the same period last year, according to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance on Friday, February 6.
Exports rose 29.7% year on year to US$43.19 billion, while imports climbed more sharply by 49.2% to US$44.97 billion. The faster growth in imports resulted in a trade deficit of US$1.78 billion for the month.
Of the total export value, the domestic sector contributed US$9.51 billion, while the foreign-invested sector, including crude oil, accounted for US$33.68 billion. Nine export categories each recorded turnover exceeding US$1 billion, together making up 72.4% of Vietnam's total exports in January.
Processed industrial goods continued to dominate the country's export basket, generating US$38.43 billion and accounting for 89% of total exports. Agro-forestry products followed with US$3.65 billion, or 8.5%, while seafood exports stood at US$1.01 billion, representing 2.3%. Fuels and minerals contributed US$0.1 billion, or 0.2% of total export value.
The United States remained Vietnam's largest export market, with shipments totalling US$13.9 billion. China continued to be the country's biggest source of imports, with goods worth US$19 billion entering Vietnam during the month.
Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of US$12 billion with the United States and US$3.9 billion with the European Union, reflecting year-on-year increases of 28.6% and 3.9% respectively. The surplus with Japan stood at US$0.2 billion, though this was down 59.9% from a year earlier.
At the same time, trade deficits widened with several key partners. The deficit with China expanded to US$12.7 billion, up 52.1% year on year, while the shortfall with the Republic of Korea rose 74.9% to US$3.4 billion. The deficit with ASEAN countries also grew sharply to US$1.3 billion, an increase of 92.2%.
To support export growth, NSO Director General Nguyen Thi Huong urged the government to strengthen export promotion efforts, intensify trade promotion activities and diversify supply chains, production networks and export-import markets. She also highlighted the importance of improving product quality and deepening Vietnam's integration into regional and global supply chains.
Huong further emphasised the need to fully leverage existing free trade agreements, expand exports to major markets and tap emerging destinations such as the Middle East, Halal markets, Latin America and Africa to achieve more sustainable trade surpluses.
She added that authorities should closely monitor global economic recovery trends, promote bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and provide businesses with better information and support to meet market standards, manage trade remedy cases, access capital and adopt high technologies to enhance export capacity.
