Vietnam posts $1.15 billion trade surplus in January

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam posted a trade surplus of $1.15 billion (921.03 million pounds) in January, the government said on Sunday, down from a $881 million surplus in the same month a year earlier.

Exports rose 5.7 percent to $14.34 billion compared with the same period last year, while imports edged up 3.9 percent to $13.19 billion, the government website cited data from customs department as showing.

China, South Korea and the United States are Vietnam's biggest trading partners so far this year.

Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 140,300 tonnes (2.3 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in January, down 20.5 percent from a year earlier.

But the value of coffee exports rose 3.5 percent annually to $316.8 million, customs data showed.

The country saw a trade surplus of $2.52 billion and exported 1.78 million tonnes of coffee in 2016.

(Reporting by My Pham; Editing by Kim Coghill)