Vietnam-India trade sees strong growth in 7 months

Hanoi (VNA) – Bilateral trade between Vietnam and India experienced a significant yearly increase of 50 percent to 6.36 billion USD over the past seven months of 2018, statistics from the General Department of Customs showed.

The positive two-way trade was mainly due to Vietnamese exports at 3.92 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 96 percent, according to the data.

Among major staples, machinery, equipment and parts recorded the strongest turnover with 1.23 billion USD, up 590 percent year-on-year and contributing 32 percent of Vietnam’s total exports to India.

Handsets and components came next at 470 million USD, up 72 percent, followed by computers, electronics and parts at 380 million USD, up 26 percent, and metal and metal-made products at 353 million USD, up 40 percent.

Others recording impressive export growth were bamboo-made goods at 1,470 percent; iron and steel products at 270 percent; means of transport and components at 170 percent and products from plastic and rubber at 150 percent and 100 percent, respectively.  

From January to June, Vietnam imported 2.44 billion USD worth of goods from India, surging 9.2 percent over the same period last year, with cotton taking the lead at 320 million USD, up 44 percent.  

Vietnam resumed its import of maize from India, worth 23 million USD, a hike of 1,800 percent while spending 145 million USD on importing animal feed and raw materials from the market, an increase of 29 percent.

In the period, the Southeast Asian nation also upped its imports of several other goods from India such as metal (up 180 percent); automobile components (130 percent); plastic materials (up 110 percent) and ore and other minerals (75 percent).

Most notably, Vietnam posted a trade surplus of 1.48 billion USD with India in the seven-month period.

The two countries set a target of 15 billion USD in bilateral trade by 2020.-VNA