In the period, the country’s exports to Korea reached 7.72 billion USD, accounting for 7.6 per cent of the total export turnover of the country, up by 7.2 per cent year –on - year; while the imports from Korea reached 19.1 billion USD, accounting for 18.8 per cent of the total import value of the country, and up by 1.7 per cent year – on - year; Thus, Vietnam saw a deficit of 11.38 billion USD in trade exchange with South Korea, down by 1.7 per cent.

Vietnam imported from South Korea mainly machinery, equipment, electronics and industrial goods. Of the figure, there were 3 commodity groups that saw high turnover of over 1 billion USD. Computers, electronic products and components led the turnover, with 7.23 billion USD, accounting for 37.8 per cent of the total import value of goods from this market, down by 0.6 per cent compared to with the same period last year.

The group of machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts ranked second in turnover, with 2.73 billion USD, accounting for 14.3 per cent, up by 6.6 per cent over the same period last year; while mobile phones and components ranked third with 1.77 billion USD, accounting for 9.2 per cent of the total and up by 4.8 per cent year – on -year.

Among many groups of items imported from the Korean market in the first 5 months of this year, up to 64 per cent of the total saw value increase compared to the same period of 2018, the remaining 36 per cent of the markets saw a turnover drop; in which, there were 3 groups of items saw high increase of over 100 per cent of turnover, including the imports of complete - built automobiles - up by 369.6 per cent to 22.95 million USD; automotive components and spare parts - increased by 110.2 per cent to 481.11 million USD; wood and wood products - increased by 107 per cent to 6.96 million USD.

However, the country’s imports of liquefied gas from South Korea decreased by 59.7 per cent to only 1.22 million USD; gasoline - decreased by 40 per cent to 597.54 million USD; pesticides and raw materials - fell by 29.1 per cent to 7.61 million USD; fertilizer - decreased by 24.9 per cent to 14.96 million USD.