The past eight months of the year witnessed Vietnam’s trade with the bloc reach US$54.9 billion, up 12.5% on-year, with the Vietnamese side recording a trade deficit of US$5.6 billion.
Regarding exports, during the reviewed period the country earned US$24.6 billion from exporting goods to ASEAN, up 12.6% over last year’s corresponding period.
Thailand continued to be the largest export market with US$5.23 billion, up 7.2% on-year, trailed by Indonesia with US$4.15 billion and the Philippines with US$4.07 billion, up 23.6% and 17%, respectively, over the same period from last year.
Exports to a total of six markets with a turnover of billions of US$ in the regional bloc grossed a total of US$23.93 billion, thereby accounting for 97% of exports to ASEAN.
Within the bloc, Myanmar was the only export market to suffer a fall in turnover, down 36.7% on-year to US$197 million. Concerning imports, the nation spent US$30.2 billion on importing goods from ASEAN during the eight-month period, up 12.4% on-year.
Thailand represented the largest import market with US$7.8 billion, up slightly by 1.3% on-year.
The two other markets with import turnover of over US$6 billion were Indonesia with US$6.5 billion, up 14.5%, and Malaysia with US$6.14 billion, up 22.4%, over the same period from last year.
In the billion-US$ group, the Philippines was the country’s import market with the lowest turnover of US$1.66 billion, up 4% on-year.