Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The country's export turnover increased 22 percent toreach 77.34 billion USD in the first quarter, while the trade surplus wasestimated at 2.03 billion USD.

The General Statistics Office (GSO)’s representative said on March 29 that: “Vietnamhas recorded a strong recovery of import and export activities."

He said the total merchandise import-export turnover in Q1 reached 152.65billion USD, up 24.1 percent over the same period last year. While the exportturnover reached 77.34 billion USD, the import turnover also reached 75.31billion USD, up 26.3 percent.

GSO said goods export turnover in February reached 20.196 billion USD, 196million USD higher than planned, adding that export turnover was estimated toreach 28.6 billion USD in March, marking an increase of 41.6 percent overFebruary and 19.2 percent over the same period last year.

In Q1, there were 11 items with an export turnover of more than 1 billion USD,accounting for 76.6 percent of the total export turnover. They included fouritems with an export turnover of over 5 billion USD, accounting for 54.7 percent.

Import turnover reached 20.656 billion USD in February, 144 million USD lowerthan planned, said the GSO, estimating the import turnover to reach 28.2billion USD in March, up 36.5 percent over February and 27.7 percent over thesame period last year. In imports, materials for production were estimated at 70.58billion USD, up 26.8 percent over the same period last year and accounting for93.7 percent of the total import turnover.

GSO said the production expectation in Q2 was more positive with an increase of27.5 percent in registered capital at 447.8 trillion VND (19.46 billion USD) inQ1. A survey on business trends of enterprises in the manufacturing andprocessing industries showed enterprises expect their production and businessin Q2 to be better than Q1.

At the same time, demand for consumption increased again in March with betterdomestic trade and freight transportation. The total retail sales of consumergoods and services in March increased 9.2 percent over February and decreased5.4 percent from the same period last year. Though the cargo transportationincreased by 5.3 percent from the previous month, the transportation ofpassengers still faced difficulties due to the effects of the pandemic.

Total retail sales of consumer goods and services reached 1.291 quadrillion VND,up 5.1 percent over the same period last year. Of which, the sales in Marchwere estimated at 405.1 trillion VND, down 3.8 percent from the previous monthand up 9.2 percent over the same period last year.

In the first quarter, international visitors were estimated at48,100 arrivals, down 98.7 percent from the same period last year. In March,there are 19,400 arrivals, up 77.3 percent over February and down 95.7 percentfrom last March, said the GSO.

The office also considered positive signals in mobilising and using capital,saying realised investment capital was estimated at 507.6 trillion VND in Q1,an increase of 6.3 percent over the same period last year. The office said theincrease was an important driving force for the mobilisation and use of socialinvestment capital to grow strongly in the coming quarters of the year./.