Vietnam records 1 billion USD trade deficit in first half of Jan

Vietnam had a trade deficit of about 1 billion USD in the first 15 days of this year, according to the General Department of Customs.
Vietnam records 1 billion USD trade deficit in first half of Jan ảnh 1A shipping yard Hai Phong port. Vietnam had a trade deficit of about 1 billion USD in the first 15 days of this year. (Photo: baohaiquan.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamhad a trade deficit of about 1 billion USD in the first 15 days of this year,according to the General Department of Customs.

The total value of the wholecountry’s exports reached 9.2 billion USD, marking a slight decrease of 71million USD compared to the same period in 2018. Meanwhile the total importvalue reached nearly 10.2 billion USD, an increase of 646 million USD.

The nation’s trade deficit in theperiod, after recording a trade surplus of nearly 6.8 billion USD in 2018, waslikely due to the import activity leading up to the Lunar New Year. The holidaycauses reduced production and exports coupled with a rise in imports to meetdomestic demand.

During the first 15 days of theyear, three goods categories recorded an export value of at least 1 billion USD,including textiles and garments, telephones and computers and electronicproducts.

The number of export goods didnot increase compared to the same period in 2018, and telephones saw asignificant reduction in export value, according to the department.

Export value of those productsreached 1.3 billion USD in the first 15 days of this year while it was morethan 2.1 billion USD in the same period of last year. This change contributedto the drop in the nation’s total export value.

In addition, computers,electronic products and components also had a slight decrease in export valueto nearly 50 million USD.

Meanwhile, only the textile andgarment group achieved export value growth, increasing 13 percent year-on-yearto 1.3 billion USD.

In 2018, Vietnam achieved a totaltrade value of 480.2 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 12.2 percent. Ofthat number, export value was 243.5 billion USD, up by 13.2 percent, and importvalue reached 236.7 billion USD, up by 11.1 percent.

The three aforementioned goodscategories made the largest gains in export value last year.

Telephones and componentscontinued to have the largest export value at 49.1 billion USD in 2018, anincrease of 8.4 percent compared to 2017. China was the largest export marketfor those products with an export value of 9.38 billion USD, up 31.1 percentyear-on-year. The US market was next with a value of 5.4 billion USD, ayear-on-year surge of 46.1 percent.

Textile and garment exportsranked second at 30.49 billion USD, up 16.7 percent. Largest export markets forVietnamese textiles and garments included the US, the European Union, Japan,the Republic of Korea and China.

Computer and electronic productshad the third largest export value last year at 29.32 billion USD.-VNS/VNA
VNA

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