The first two weeks of May have seen Vietnam earn 5.11 billion USD from exports but spend 5.94 billion USD on imports.

According to the latest Vietnam General Department of Customs statistics, trade turnover from May 1–15 totalled 11.06 billion USD, up 5.4 percent from two weeks earlier.

It has brought Vietnam ’s trade value to 89.94 billion USD so far this year, a year-on-year increase of 16.8 percent. Exports contributed 44.21 billion USD, up 16.4 percent, while imports increased 17.1 percent to nearly 45.73 billion USD.

At the end of May’s first fortnight, Vietnam faced a 1.51 billion USD trade deficit, equivalent to 3.4 percent of its total import-export turnover.

Some export commodities declined in value, including vehicles, machinery, and steel. Meanwhile, key exports like garments and footwear enjoyed sharp increases of up to 50 million USD and 33.5 million USD respectively.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) businesses contributed 3.14 billion USD to the reviewed period’s export revenue, 6.5 percent lower than that in the second half of April 2013.

Over the past five months, they have earned 26.36 billion USD from exports, representing a year-on-year increase of 27.9 percent and accounting for 59.6 percent of Vietnam’s total export value.

The FDI sector imported goods worth 3.37 billion USD in May’s first half, increasing its five-month import value by 26.4 percent from a year earlier to 25.4 billion USD. This constituted 5 percent of the country’s total import spending.-VNA