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Vietnam’s Jan trade deficit at $1.3 billion
Vietnam’s trade deficit in January is estimated at US$1.3 billion with import growth outstripping exports by more than three to one compared with the same month last year, the government statistics office said Tuesday.
Imports leapt 86.6 percent in January from a year earlier to $6.2 billion, while exports rose 28.1 percent to $4.9 billion, it said in a monthly report.
Vietnam has been trying to limit the trade gap by spurring exports and curbing imports and the statistics showed some attenuation from last month with a revised deficit in December of $1.93 billion compared with $1.30 billion originally reported.
The January increase in the value of imports “was attributed to increased prices on the world market for basic commodities such as petrol, which rose by 53 percent, and steel, up by 86 percent” from last January, the Vietnam News quoted the statistics office on Tuesday as saying.
It said January exports of most of the country’s key staples outstripped their value in the same month last year. Crude oil brought in nearly $570 million, rice gobbled up $165 million and rubber drew $155 million, the report said.
thanhnien, Reuters
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