The country’s exports earned USD7.3 billion in April, down by USD150 million from the previous month, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).
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| Processing aquatic products for export (source: VNA) |
However, the total export revenue in the first four months of this year reached USD26.94 billion, up 35.7 percent compared with the same period last year.
Among main export items, coffee, rubber and cassava saw a more-than-double increase; fruit and vegetables, pepper, iron and steel registered a 1.5-fold rise and many exported goods hit double digits.
Meanwhile, tea, coal and precious metals products experienced a contraction in value over a year earlier. Cashew nuts, tea, pepper and coal plummeted in volume.
The ministry said price increases helped drive up the export revenues by over USD2 billion.
The nation’s import spending reached USD8.7 billion in April, down slightly from a month earlier, bringing the total import value in the first four months of the year to USD31.83 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.1 percent.
According to the MoIT, cotton imports saw double rise in value, the import value of wheat, petrol, weaving, and automobiles also increased half as much against that of corresponding period last year; while the imports of fruit and vegetables, animal feeds, transportation means dropped from the previous year.
As a result, the country’s trade deficit for the January-April period was estimated at nearly USD4.9 billion, up 6 percent against the same period last year.