Vietnam recorded a trade deficit of 1.3 billion USD in May, resulting in a total deficit of 548 million USD for the first five months of the year, according to General Statistics Office’s monthly report.
The domestic sector reported a trade deficit of 13.3 billion USD in the period, while foreign-invested firms posted a trade balance of 12.7 billion USD.
Statisticians blamed the return to a trade deficit on slowing growth of exports in May. In the first four months of the year, the country posted a surplus of 771 million USD.
The US remained Vietnam's biggest export market in the period, spending nearly 23 billion USD on Vietnamese goods, a yearly hike of 28 percent.
The figures also showed that import turnover between January and May topped more than 100 billion USD, surging 10 percent over the same period last year.
China retained its position as Vietnam's largest source of imports with turnover of 29.6 billion USD.
Vietnam saw an increase of 46 percent in its trade deficit with China to total of 16 billion USD in the period.-VNA
