Vietnam trade deficit tops 10 billion dollars
HANOI — Vietnam's trade deficit has surged past the 10 billion dollar mark so far this year, a 142-percent rise over the same period last year, state media reported Saturday quoting government estimates.
High costs of imports including fuel, raw materials and machinery were to blame for the trade gap widening to 10.47 billion dollars, far above the target of 3.9 billion dollars, the English-language Vietnam News reported.
Between January and November, Vietnam spent 54.1 billion dollars on imports, up 33.1 percent year-on-year, the daily said, quoting an early estimate from the General Statistics Office (GSO).
In the same 11-month period, Vietnam earned 43.6 billion dollars from exports, a rise of 20 percent -- mainly crude oil from Vietnam's offshore fields, followed by textiles and garments, footwear, and fish and shrimp.
"The high deficit was attributed to substantial machinery and equipment imports and skyrocketing prices of petroleum, steel and other materials," the report said.
"The depreciation of the dollar against the Vietnamese dong and other world currencies also played a role in inflated import spendings," the paper said.
In the 11-month period, Vietnam was estimated to have spent 9.21 billion dollars on buying machinery, raw materials and equipment, up by 56.3 percent.
Imports of oil and petroleum products -- needed as Vietnam still lacks refineries to process its own oil -- were also up by 20 percent, totalling 6.55 billion dollars, it said.
Revenues from crude oil exports reached 7.5 billion dollars, 2.3 percent less than in the same period last year, the report said.
Coffee earnings, however, boomed thanks to high world prices, bringing back 1.68 billion dollars, a 72.7 percent year-on-year increase. Vietnam is the world's top exporter of robusta coffee.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said last month the government set a target of between 10.8 billion and 10.9 billion dollars for the trade deficit for 2008, while it hoped economic growth would reach 9.0 percent.
In 2006, the country's trade deficit stood at 5.09 billion dollars.
Agence France Presse - November 24, 2007.
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