Vietnam is estimated to see big on-month in trade deficit in July at US$800 million from US$1.3 billion last month and US$961 million a year earlier, said the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The sharp decrease reflects the country&rsquos great efforts to reduce trade deficit in order to curb inflation amid the recent petroleum price hikes.
In July, the country&rsquos ships US$6.25 billion worth of commodities, down from US$6.43 billion last month, and up 46.1 per cent on-year.
The figure raises the country&rsquos total export value in the first seven months to US$36.87 billion, up 37.7 per cent on-year. Of the total, foreign-invested firms contribute US$20.4 billion, up 35.8 per cent on-year and the domestic ones with US$16.47 billion, up 29.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, Vietnam sps US$7.05 billion on imports in July from US$7.16 billion in June, lifting the country&rsquos whole import sping to US$51.88 billion in January-July, up 56.8 per cent on-year. Of
Of the total import value, the domestic sector is fore to import US$35.46 billion, up 70.4 per cent on-year and the foreign invested sector of US$16.42 billion, up 40.5 per cent.
The figures resulted in the country&rsquos trade deficit of US$15.01 billion during the seven months, up 2.67 times on-year.
Vietnam imported most machinery and equipment (US$8.15 billion, up 40.3 per cent on-year), fuels (US$7.75 billion, up 90.7 per cent), steel and iron (US$5.01 billion, up 96.6 per cent), cloths (US$2.66 billion, up 18.3 per cent), electronics, computers and spare parts (US$2.04 billion, up 36.1 per cent), plastics (US$1.82 billion, up 38.8 per cent), apparel and leather accessories (US$1.46 billion, up 19.1 per cent), animal feed (US$1.18 billion, up 78.3 per cent), fertilizer (US$1.1 billion, up 118.9 per cent), chemicals (US$108 million, up 28.4 per cent).
Imports of automobile report the highest growth rate of 199.4 per cent to US$1.83 billion in January-July.
Eight items have value of over US$1 billion each during the first half. Of which, crude oil still tops the list with 7.8 million tons worth US$6.8 billion, down 12.1 per cent on-year in volume but up 52.2 per cent in value.
It is followed by garments and textiles with US$5.09 billion, up 20.5 per cent, footwear with US$2.75 billion, up 18.4 per cent, seafood with US$2.34 billion, up 17.7 per cent, rice with 2.79 million tons worth US$1.81 billion, up 6.8 per cent and 87.6 per cent, respectively, woodwork products with US$1.59 billion, up 21.3 per cent, electronics and computers with US$1.44 billion, up 29.4 per cent and coffee with US$1.38 billion, up 3.8 per cent.
Vietnams imports are fore to increase 31 per cent on-year to US$80.2 billion this year, lower than the previous target of US$85.7 billion set by the government, while the country will attain an on-year export growth of 26 per cent to US$61.2 billion, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). (GSO July 2008)
Vietnamese
