Gov’t vows to stabilise prices
Trade deficit lower than forecast
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed petrol trading companies and several major utilities to ensure stable prices for the whole year.
In his instructions issued yesterday Dung assigned the Finance Ministry to take the initiative in arranging capital to subsidise the petrol price in order to minimise pressure on the capital and the business expenses of major petrol importers.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade was charged with the responsibility of seeing that petrol importers hold sufficient petrol reserves to ensure a reliable petrol supply for domestic consumption under all circumstances.
The State Bank has instructed commercial banks to provide capital lending and foreign exchange in order to help petrol importers meet their designated import quota.
The PM has also required authorised agencies to enhance market inspection, monitoring and to strictly penalise any violations as stipulated by law, especially violations related to import timing, prices, quality and petrol smuggling in border areas.
The PM also required the electricity, tap water and public transportation utilities to stabilise prices until the end of this year.
The Prime Minister also asked the Ministry of Finance to work with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and other relevant ministries and agencies to outline specific conditions for the setting up, management and utilisation of oil price stabilisation funds within enterprises when appropriate.
Trade deficit decreases
Meanwhile the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported a lower than expected trade deficit in the first half of this year at $14.7 billion.
The trade deficit had been predicted to reach $16 billion in the period.
This narrowing of the deficit was helped along by export growth across a wide range of industries.
The country earned $29.7 billion from exports, a year-on-year increase of 31.8 per cent, while import value totalled more than $44 billion in the first half of the year.
This month the country's net imports stood at US$6.8 billion, a decrease of 11 per cent against last month and 15 per cent lower than the expected $8 billion. The country's exporting industries posted a turnover of US$5.8 billion, a month-on-month surge of 32.9 per cent.
Many items saw export growth in the first six month of this year. While crude oil exports stood at 6.72 million tonnes, or a decrease of 12.1 per cent against the same period last year, rising oil prices translated into an export revenue of $5.6 billion, an annual increase of nearly 50 per cent.
Rice exports climbed to more than 2.5 million tonnes, posting a turnover of $1.5 billion, and cashew exports earned $374 million for an increase of 43.2 per cent.
Other major export items with significant increases in value included electronics and PCs, which posted a turnover of $1.23 billion, an increase of 32.4 per cent; garment and textile items at $4.77 billion, for a 17.7 per cent increase; and footwear at $2.27 billion for an increase of 16.9 per cent.
The foreign-invested sector saw an export turnover of $16.92 billion, an increase of 33.8 per cent, while State-owned and private enterprises earned a turnover of $12.77 billion, or an increase of 29.1 per cent.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) sector's import value stood at $13.9 billion, making an increase of 42.7 per cent, while the import value of the domestic business sector was $30.57 billion.
Economists from the GSO warned that production capacity would go down in the near future, which would have a negative impact on exports.
They attributed the reigning-in of imports to the Government's successful measures to cope with inflation by minimising imports and raising exports.
They said imports of many items went down in June due to the Government's measures to tighten monetary policy and revise interest rates and exchange rates.
The low trade deficit was attributed to decreased imports of gold, automobiles, iron ingots and fertilisers.
VNN
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