The nation ran a trade deficit of 1.4 billion USD in the first sixmonths of this year, equivalent to 2.3 percent of the country's totalexport turnover.
The country's total export turnoverin the first half of the year reached 62.053 billion USD, a rise ofmore than 16.1 percent over the same period last year. Total importturnover jumped 17.4 percent, reaching 63.456 billion USD.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector continued to surpass thedomestic sector in both exports and imports, according to the GeneralStatistics Office (GSO)'s Trade Department.
The FDIsector contributed up to 41.14 billion USD to the total export turnover,a rise of 24.7 percent over the same period last year, while thedomestic sector saw a slight increase of only 2.2 percent.
The FDI sector also saw imports increase by 27.8 percent to 35.726billion USD, significantly higher than the domestic sector's 6.3 percentincrease.
In the first half of the year, the FDIsector recorded a trade surplus of up to 5.414 billion USD. June aloneaccounted for 2.55 billion USD of that surplus.
FDIenterprises mainly exported phones, electronics and garment-textileproducts and imported mainly raw materials for production.
According to the GSO, imports from China in the first six months ofthe year hit 17 billion USD, accounting for 26 percent of the country'stotal import turnover – a rise of 33.2 percent over the same period lastyear.
The excess of imports over exports hit nearly 11 billion USD, increasing up to 64.3 percent.
Products imported from China were mainly used by domestic enterprisesinvolved in industrial production. They included plastics, chemicals,iron and steel, fertilisers and pesticides.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the domestic industrialproduction sector was recovering, estimated to rise 5.3 percent and seea long-awaited decrease in inventories.-VNA