Vietnam records USD 3.1 billion trade surplus in seven months

Vietnam gained a trade surplus of USD 3.1 billion in the first seven months of this year, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Illustrative picture (source: VN Economy)

This is because the country’s total export value during the first seven months rose 15.3 percent year-on-year to USD 133.7 billion.

Of which, the domestic economic sector’s export value increased 18.7 percent to USD 39.3 billion over the same period of last year while that of foreign invested enterprises had a growth of 14 percent to USD 94.7 billion, accounting for 70.8 percent of the total export value.

Meanwhile, the nation saw slower growth in imports with the total import value in the first seven months of this year rising 10.2 percent to USD 130.6 billion against the same period of last year.

The import value rose 12.7 percent to USD 54.2 billion for the domestic economic sector and 8.5 percent to USD 76.5 billion for the foreign-invested enterprises.

However, GSO experts said from May to July, the nation had trade deficit in each month. The trade deficit was USD 500 million in May, USD 100 million in June and USD 300 million in July.

Vietnam had large trade deficit with China and the Republic of Korea. In the first seven months of this year, the trade deficit was at USD 16.3 billion with China, up 1.6 percent year-on-year, and at USD 16.3 billion with the Republic of Korea, which was down 13 percent.

The GSO reported major export products continued to achieve strong increases, in particular telephone and parts with a growth of 15.8 percent to USD 26.1 billion; textile and garment, up 16.2 percent to USD 16.5 billion; and electronic products, computer and parts, up 14.8 percent to USD 15.7 billion.

They also included footwear, up 8.9 percent to USD 9.1 billion; machine, equipment and parts, up 27.1 percent to USD 9 billion; wood and wooden products, up 13.4 percent to USD 4.8 billion; and transport means and parts, up 15.2 percent to USD 6.4 billion.

The nation saw growth in export value for some agro and seafood products (up 8.1 percent to USD 4.7 billion), vegetables and fruits (up 14.6 percent to USD 2.3 billion), and rice (up 31.5 percent to USD 2 billion).

However, reduction in the global export prices drove export value down for some farming products of Vietnam, such as coffee (down 4.5 percent to USD 2.2 billion), and rubber (down 9.7 percent to USD 1 billion).

Crude oil export dropped in both volume and value by 46.4 percent and 25.3 percent to USD 1.3 billion, respectively./.

( VNF/VNA )