Vietnam's trade deficit this year was the lowest in the past 10 years, reaching just over $9.5 billion, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 23 percent and equivalent to 9.9 percent of the total export value – half of the Government's target of 18 percent for the whole financial year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.
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| Workers make clothes for export at Nha Be Garment Joint Stock Corporation. |
Total import value also increased 24.7 percent to more than $105.77 billion.
The export value of the FDI (foreign direct investment) sector recorded the highest increase of 39.3 percent over last year, fetching $54.46 billion, while exports by the domestic sector rose more than 26 percent to nearly $41.8 billion.
Of the total 27 export commodities, textiles and garments recorded the highest value, $14.28 billion, up 25.1 percent year-on-year and even surpassing the export value of crude oil which earned the nation nearly $7.24 billion this year.
As many as 19 commodities had export turnovers of more than $1 billion, including seafood products ($6.1 billion), footwear ($6.5 billion), electronics-computers-spare parts and machinery-equipment-devices ($4.1 billion), rice ($3.6 billion), coffee ($2.7 billion), and cassava products ($2.6 billion).
Head of the GSO's Trade Department Le Minh Thuy attributed the high export value this year to business expansion by some FDI enterprises.
"This year, the proportion of industrial and mineral products exported rose 4 percent year-on-year and accounted for 35.2 percent of total export value," Thuy said.
Regarding imports, Thuy said the value of materials for production this year was 90.6 percent of total imports, while consumer products were just 7.6 percent.
Twenty two out of 30 imported merchandise goods were valued at more than $1 billion, of which machinery, equipment and devices led with $15.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent.
Fuel followed with a total import value of $9.9 billion; electronics-computers-spare parts, $7.2 billion; fabric, $6.7 billion; steel, $6.3 billion; plastic, $4.7 billion; and automobile, $3.1 billion.
