Vietnam’s trade deficit in the year to mid-September had substantially narrowed down to a mere US$701 million, equivalent to 0.5% of export revenue, owing to better export performance in recent months, data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs shows.

Illustrative photo (source: VNN)

The country’s trade volume in August was at its highest level this year, at US$37.95 billion.

This is an impressive result as Vietnam had to face a monthly trade deficit in the first half of this year, leading to a trade gap of nearly US$2.78 billion.

However, the situation changed for the better as the country’s trade made a turnaround in July with a surplus of US$266 million.

The customs attributed the trade deficit to domestic enterprises while foreign invested firms also brought strong trade surplus.

Specifically, from early this year to September 15, foreign invested enterprises earned US$189.54 billion from exports, making up 65.6% of the country’s total export revenue and growing 23.5% versus the year-ago period.

As a result, this sector gained a trade surplus of US$14.07 billion.

Meanwhile, domestic companies had a trade gap of US$14.77 billion in the same period.

According to the General Department of Customs, total import-export turnover had reached US$289.14 billion in the year to September 15, increasing 21.4% over the same period last year.

In which, exports and imports were US$144.22 billion and US$144.92 billion respectively, up 20.1% and 22.7%./.

( VNF/Saigon Times )