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Trade deficit totals $200m
The country was estimated to face a trade deficit of US$200 million in the first four months of the year, equal to 2.3 per cent of the country's total export value, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
GSO said that export value in April declined 9.3 per cent over the previous month to $8.6 billion, bringing the total turnover in the first four months to $33.4 billion, up 22.1 per cent over the same period last year.
In the first four months, exports of foreign invested enterprises surged sharply by 36.4 per cent to $20.65 billion, while the export growth of Vietnamese firms was only 4.3 per cent to $12.8 billion.
GSO attributed the decrease of export value in April to difficulties faced by exporters in both the market and prices. Sharp declines in export value affected electric products and computers with a slide of 20.9 per cent, coffee by 25 per cent, textile and garments by 7.3 per cent, timber and woodwork products by 16.7 per cent, and seafood by 7.4 per cent.
In the first four months, the EU was the largest import market of Vietnamese goods with an import value of $5.7 billion, accounting for 17.1 per cent of the country's total export turnover. The US followed with an import value of $5.6 billion.
The country, meanwhile, spent $9 billion on imports in April, down 0.6 per cent over the previous month. April's result raised the first four months' import value to $33.6 billion, up 4.4 per cent year-on-year.
Among the import value in January-April period, $7.9 billion was from China while $6.6 billion was from ASEAN countries. Economist Pham Chi Lan was concerned that April's decline of import value or a low demand of imported materials at this time showed signs that the domestic industrial production would continuously slowdown in the next months.
As domestic industrial production depends mainly on imported materials, local producers often have to import materials in the early months of the year to be able to churn out products by the middle or end of the year, she explained.
Meanwhile, domestic and foreign enterprises operating in the capital have recorded a total export revenue of US$780.4 million this month, up 4.4 per cent against last month and 10.4 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Of the total, the export turnover of local businesses rose by 4.6 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
vietnamnews
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