VN posts trade deficit of 1.2 bln USD in February

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam reported trade deficit of 1.2 billion USD in February, the General Statistics Office (GSO) announced on February 26.

The GSO’s figures revealed that the country’s total import-export turnover this month reached 27.2 billion USD, of which export turnover was 13 billion USD, increasing 15.4 percent from the same period last year, while import turnover was 14.2 billion USD or a year-on-year rise of 19.6 percent.

However, in the first two months of the year, the country’s total trade deficit was 40 million USD as total export turnover was 27.34 billion USD while import turnover was 27.38 billion USD.

The GSO said many exported products saw a sharp decrease in February against the same period last year in terms of value and quantity, respectively, such as pepper which declined 27 percent and 7.4 percent and rice which declined 21.4 percent and 18.4 percent.

In addition, some other exported products, such as cashew, cassava, germ and ceramics, also witnessed a significant decrease.

Meanwhile, many items posted surge in exports. Coal rose by 1,104 percent and 466 percent in terms of value and quantity and rubber by 144 percent and 34.7 percent. Steel, phones, spare parts and machines also saw high export turnover.

Import turnover of automobiles with less than nine seats rose nearly 100 percent in value and 140 percent in quantity, while transport vehicles rose by 38 percent and rubber rose by 103.4 percent in terms of value.

Last month, Vietnam’s trade deficit rose by 100 million USD after enjoying a trade surplus of 2.68 billion USD in 2016. The country’s total import-export turnover in January fell by 13 percent from last December, despite an increase against the same period last year.-VNA