Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand's cross-border trade was down by 9.7 percentyear-on-year in the first five months of 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19pandemic on the global economy, and neighbours’ closure of nearly all bordercheckpoints.

Statistics releases bythe Foreign Trade Department showed the country's overall cross-border trade,including transit trade, totalled 524.35 billion THB (16.74 billion USD)  from January to May, with Malaysia remainingthe biggest partner by value.

Of the total figures,exports from Thailand were 305.72 billion THB, down 9 percent from the firstfive months of last year, while imports were 218.63 billion THB, down 10.7percent, resulting in a trade surplus of 87.09 billion THB

Two-way trade withMalaysia totalled 87.85 billion THB (down 32.4 percent), followed by trade withLaos (77.17 billion THB, down 6.6 percent), Myanmar (73.74 billion THB, down 11percent) and Cambodia (70.87 billion THB, up 5.2 percent).

Transit trade, mainlywith Singapore, Vietnam and southern China, fell 1.5 percent in the first fivemonths to 214.71 billion THB.

Transit trade withsouthern China and Singapore was up, by 15.7 percent and 20.8 percent respectively.Transit trade value was 90.74 billion THB with southern China and 36.10 billionTHB with Singapore.

Transit trade valuewith Vietnam and other countries fell by 26.7 percent and 16.9 percent to 24.69billion and 63.18 billion THB respectively.

Keerati Rushchano,director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said cross-border and transittrade remains bearish because of the pandemic, leading Thailand to close 69border checkpoints out of the total of 97.

The hope is that thesituation will improve in the second half of the year, he said, given thatdemand for Thai goods from nearby countries remains strong.

Nonetheless, gauged bythe performance in the first five months, the border trade target of 1.5trillion THB for 2020 is unlikely to be achieved, Keerati said, adding that viablefigures are likely 1-1.1 trillion THB this year because of COVID-19./.