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Trade deficit down to $8.8 bil
Viet Nam's trade deficit has reduced by half to US$8.78 billion for the first 10 months of this year compared with the same period last year, the General Statistics Office has reported.
The office said the reductions were due to a decline in the values of imports compared to exports.
Total import value in the period was $55.1 billion, 21.7 per cent lower than the same period last year, including $35.15 billion in the domestic economic sector, down 24.5 per cent, and $19.97 billion from foreign invested firms, down 16.2 per cent.
The decline in the total import value was mainly due to reduced world prices and demand on some products of material, equipment and machines, the office said.
During the period, the import value had a year-on-year reduction of 47.9 per cent to $5.28 billion for petrol and oil; 30 per cent to $4.33 billion for iron and steel products; 23.2 per cent to $1.55 billion for textile garment, leather and foot wear; 15.2 per cent to $1.32 billion for chemical products; and 13 per cent to $9.51 billion for equipment and machines.
Meanwhile, the total export value reduced 13.8 per cent in the period to $46.34 billion compared with the same period of last year, the office said. It included $22.14 billion from the domestic economic sector and $24.2 billion from foreign invested firms.
Deputy head of the GSO's Commerce Department Le Minh Thuy said the export value declined because of declines of world export prices, competition from other countries and a weak US dollar.
The export value dropped 43 per cent to $5.3 billion for crude oil; 41 per cent to $823 million for rubber; 19.4 per cent to $1.29 billion for coal; 17.3 percent to $1.4 billion for coffee.
The statistics office said the imports and prices of materials, equipment and machines would increase by the end of this year due to a recovery in production and the economy.
The import value would increase in the last two months of the year, bringing the trade deficit up to $12.5 billion for the year, $1-1.5 billion higher than the Government's expectation, they said. However the figure would be two-thirds of the trade deficit last year.
vietnamnet, vietnamnews
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