Vietnam's trade deficit reaches 11.2 bln USD in first 4 months

HANOI, Apr 24, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- -- Vietnam's trade deficit is estimated at 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months of this year, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Thursday.

Between January and April, the country is set to earn 18.2 billion dollars from exports, and spend 29.4 billion dollars on imports, respective year-on-year rises of 27.6 percent and 71 percent, the paper quoted the country's General Statistics Office as reporting.

Major export items in the period included crude oil, garments, footwear, and rice.

Meanwhile, the higher import turnovers was mainly due to higher demand for materials, equipment and machines for production and construction.

Specifically, import value of equipment and machines rose 47 percent to 4.6 billion dollars, that of automobiles and their spare parts, up 333 percent to 991 million dollars, and that of petroleum products, up 70.2 percent to 3.7 billion dollars.

Vietnam's trade deficit is forecast to exceed 20 billion dollars in 2008, up from 14.1 billion dollars in 2007, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.

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