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Commodity exports plunge 13% on global prices
The General Statistic Office reported that commodity exports in the first seven months of the year reached US$32.3 billion or a year-on-year decrease of 13.4 per cent.
The GSO said domestic economic enterprises posted a turnover of $16.4 billion, a decrease of 4.7 per cent, and the foreign-invested economic sector saw a turnover of $15.9 billion, a reduction of 20.8 per cent.
Le Minh Thuy, an office official, attributed the strong decrease to the falling global prices of Vietnamese exports: coal was down 56.6 per cent and rubber slipped 51.1 per cent. This was followed by crude oil, which fell 49.8 per cent, rice down 48.8 per cent, coffee 34.3 per cent, and tea down 18.3 per cent.
Due to the decrease in world prices, 19 of Viet Nam’s 23 key exports have fallen.
The country’s major US dollar earners, such as crude oil, earned $3.73 billion, down 44.8 per cent. Garment and textiles reached $5.2 billion, or a decline of 1 per cent, and fisheries products hit $2.17 billion, or a reduction of 8.9 per cent.
Cassava products saw an 85.6 per cent rise to $407. This was followed by rice at $1.9 billion, an increase of 4.4 per cent; and tea, at $83 million, an increase of 4.8 per cent.
Thuy said the decline in export turnover did not mean that Vietnamese exports had lost their markets. Vietnamese exports increased in quantity in the first seven months of the year, showing that Vietnamese businesses can access foreign markets despite the global economic downturn.
Many key exports increased in quantity. Coffee exports stood at 802,000 tonnes, an increase of 19.1 per cent, rice reached 4.2 million tonnes, up 46.3 per cent, and crude oil saw an increase of 9.63 million tonnes, a rise of 17.7 per cent.
In the first seven months of 2009, Viet Nam spent more than $35.7 billion on imports, down 32 per cent over the same period last year.
Domestic businesses spent $23 billion, a decrease of 36.2 per cent, and foreign-invested firms spent $12.6 billion, a decline of 22.9 per cent.
The county’s major imports saw a strong decrease: petrol imports fell by 57 per cent and steel slipped 58.2 per cent.
In the first seven months, the trade deficit was at $3.39 billion, a decline of 77.8 per cent against the same period last year.
According to Thuy, the trade deficit in the remaining months would increase due to low levels of global consumption.
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