Nation swings to trade deficit in October

With a trade deficit in October alone of nearly $500 million, the nation swung to an overall deficit in the first ten months of this year of $357 million – erasing a trade surplus of $143 million as of late September, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Total trade value in the first 10 months of the year reached $187.25 billion, of which exports accounted for $93.45 billion, an increase of 18.4 per cent over the same period last year. Imports totalled $93.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.8 per cent. Foreign-invested enterprises represented over half of the export value during the period, with a combined export value of nearly $51.6 billion.

In October alone, the nation's total trade value reached $20.3 billion. Exports of textiles and garments saw the largest value, reaching $1.4 billion, closely followed by mobile phones and components, totalling $1.3 billion.

The nation now has 22 categories of goods with export values in excess of $1 billion so far in 2012, including textiles and garments, with a value of $12.53 billion; mobile phones and components, with a value of nearly $10 billion; crude oil at over $7 billion; and computer and electronic products and components at over $6 billion.