Official: Vietnam could achieve trade balance this year

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam could achieve trade balance, or even a trade surplus this year, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade Tran Thanh Hai told a regular press conference of the ministry in Hanoi on September 30.

In September, the country earned 27 billion USD from exports, down 0.8 percent month-on-month and 0.6 percent year-on-year. It was also the second consecutive month that exports declined from the same period last year.

However, the nine-month figure still showed an 18.8 percent increase year on year to an estimated 240.5 billion USD.

Meanwhile, import was estimated at 26.5 billion USD in September, down 3.1 percent monthly, but the nine-month figure hiked by 30.5 percent annually to 242.65 billion USD.

Given such situation, Vietnam ran a trade surplus of 500 million USD in September and a deficit of 2.13 billion USD in nine months of this year.

According to Hai, the current trade deficit is not a cause for concern, considering that trade deficit dropped to 100 million USD in August after topping 2 billion USD in July, and September saw the return of trade surplus. 

Vietnam’s exports are in favourable conditions thanks to opportunities from free trade agreements and rising market demand during year’s end, especially for goods of the country’s strength. Therefore, if there is no major change in the pandemic situation, export activities in southern localities are expected to regain speed in the last quarter of the year, helping balance trade, and even bring a trade surplus, he said./.