Vietnam’s trade deficit is forecast to have fallen to US$12.246 billion this year from the General Statistics Office’s revised figure of US$17.516 billion in 2008.
The figure accounts for 21.64% of the country’s total export value in 2009, meaning that the government has failed to realize its target of below 20% of the export value, the GSO said.
Vietnam is estimated to have fetched US$56.584 billion from goods exports, down 9.7% from a year earlier and spend US$68.83 billion on imports this year, down 14.7% on-year.
In December, Vietnam’s exports and imports are valued at US$5.25 billion and US$6.55 billion, up 12% and down 3.21% on-month, respectively.
Gemstones and precious metals and cassava and its products are estimated to have posted the highest on-year export growth of 243.1% and 52.8% to US$2.723 billion and US$556 million during the twelve-month period, respectively.
Meanwhile, most of Vietnam’s major exports incur on-year value decreases such as apparel down 1.3% to US$9 billion, crude oil down 40% to US$6.21 billion, seafood down 6.7% to US$4.21 billion, footwear down 15.8% to US$4.02 billion and rice down 8% to US$2.66 billion.
Vietnam’s import staples of machines and equipment, petroleum products, steel and iron and cloth are estimated to fall 5.6%, 43.8%, 22.9% and 5.2% on-year to US$12.37 billion, US$6.16 billion, US$5.33 billion and US$4.22 billion, respectively.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has forecast Vietnam will export US$59.9 billion worth of goods and import US$74.4 billion in 2010, representing on-year rises of 6% and 9%. (GSO Dec 2009)
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