Trade deficit surges in first five months
Trade deficit surges in first five months
The trade deficit in the first five months of the year surged sharply to US$622 million, roughly 3.5 times higher than that of the first four months, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
The country in the period fetched $42.86 billion from exports, up 24.1 per cent over the same period last year, while spending $43.48 billion for imports, up 6.6 per cent.
Director of the GSO's Trade Department Le Minh Thuy attributed the surge to the recovery of domestic production, explaining that most imported goods were raw materials serving local production.
Thuy considered the Government's decision to loosen monetary policies, cut interest rates and cool down inflation as positive factors to boost domestic production as well as export and import activities.
However, the GSO noted that the trade deficit of this year's first five months was equal to only a tenth of the same period last year.
The import of many raw materials declined sharply compared with the same period last year. Imports of cotton decreased by 33.8 per cent, fibre by 14.2 per cent, vehicle parts by 37.8 per cent and fertiliser by 13.6 per cent. Petrol and oil imports also reduced by 13.3 per cent in value and 23.2 per cent in volume. The sliding figures for imported gas value and volume were 17 per cent and 27.6 per cent.
Despite the import reduction of many goods, the import value of electronic and computer components saw robust growth in the first five months to serve domestic production. The goods' import value rose 103.4 per cent to more than $4.54 billion, helping the industry gain an export turnover of $6.41 billion. Exports of phones alone increased 110.9 per cent to $3.67 billion, making it surpass the export value of crude oil to rank second among the country's biggest export earners. Textiles and garments topped the list with an earning of $5.33 billion
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