Vietnam trade deficit hits 650 million dollars in October
HANOI - Vietnam's trade deficit hit 650 million dollars in October, up 10.1 percent from September, according to preliminary data released by the General Statistics Office.
The country earned 3.40 billion dollars in exports in October, while spending 4.05 billion dollars in imports of mostly refined oil, machinery and clothes.
In September, the trade deficit reached 590 million dollars, according to the GSO revised figures. In October last year, it was at 363 million dollars.
Between January and October this year, the communist nation's trade deficit reached approximately 3.99 billion dollars, a decrease of 2.2 percent from 4.08 billion dollars of the same period last year.
"The level of trade deficit this year is high, almost as that of last year, because Vietnam needs to import lots of machinery and equipment for basic construction, especially for power plants," an independent economist told AFP while declining to be named.
In the first 10 months of 2006, Vietnam spent 5.12 billion dollars on imported refined petroleum products, up by 22.3 percent. Crude oil exports reached 7.11 billion dollars, up by 15.9 percent year-on-year.
Textile exports were up by 27.2 percent to 4.96 billion dollars, while footwear exports increased by 19.9 percent to 2.87 billion dollars in this period.
Vietnam is the world's second largest rice exporter after Thailand. From January to October, it earned 1.18 billion dollars from rice exports, a figure down by 7.8 percent year-on-year.
The GSO also reported industrial production in this period was estimated at 25.72 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 16.9 percent.
Private sector output grew 22.3 percent, while state sector production increased 9.3 percent.
Agence France Presse - October 25, 2006.
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