The trade deficit increased to USD6.6 billion in the first five months this year compared to USD5.4 billion in the same period of last year due to higher import value, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
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The deficit was USD1 billion in January, USD1.1 billion in February, USD1.15 billion in March, USD1.4 billion in April and USD1.7 billion in May.
The May deficit saw a year-on-year increase of 17.3 percent, said Le Thi Minh Thuy, head of the GSO\'s Trade Department.
"The deficit can be reduced with the decrease of imported goods and materials in favour of domestically produced equipment and materials and the support of local industry development," Thuy said.
During May, export value rose to USD7.5 billion from USD7.437 billion in April while the import value surged to USD9.2 billion from USD8.93 billion in April, she added.
Total export value during the first five months of this year saw a year-on-year increase of 32.8 percent to USD34.75 billion.
"The huge surge in export value during the first five months was mainly due to a sharp increase in world market prices, especially in terms of farm products, seafood, textiles and footwear, Vietnamese key exports," Thuy said.
Export value climbed by 113 percent to USD1.52 billion for rubber; 121.7 percent to USD1.77 billion for coffee; 109.4 percent to USD580 million for cassava and products made from cassava; 37 percent to USD2.98 billion for crude oil; 35.6 percent to USD5.1 billion for textiles and 31.8 percent to USD2.37 billion for footwear.
The state-owned sector saw a year-on-year growth of 31.1 percent in terms of total export value during the first five months to USD15 billion while the foreign investment sector saw a year-on-year growth in export value of 34.2 percent to USD19.01 billion.
High world market prices, while advantageous to export value, disadvantaged import activities because high prices pushed the total trade deficit up, Thuy said.
Total import value during the first five months increased 29.7 percent compared with the same period last year to USD41.33 billion.
