Trade deficit returns on high imports
Imports exceeded exports in March by US$300 million, marking the return of the trade deficit in Vietnam after the country experienced a trade surplus in the first two months of this year and in 2012.
The country exported US$11 billion worth of goods in March and imported US$11.3 million in the same period, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
Head of the GSO's trade department Le Thi Minh Thuy attributed the trade deficit to the increased import demands of domestic businesses, while the export value of some key products declined considerably.
However, she said the trade balance in the first three months remained positive with exports exceeding imports, at US$29.687 billion and US$29.206 billion, respectively.
Most of the trade surplus came from the foreign direct invested sectors, with export value at US$19.256 billion and import value at US$16.140 billion, up 25.6 percent and 25.5 percent.
The domestic sector's export value hit US$10.431 billion in the same period, and import value reached US$13.066 billion.
Export earnings of electrical products and components alone reached US$7.2 billion, of which mobile phones accounted for US$4.5 billion.
The GSO said some key products saw falls in export value during the period, including seafood (US$1.26 billion, down 2.3 percent), coffee (US$1.92 billion, down 1.5 percent) and rubber (US$522 million, down 16.7 percent).
Items that posted high import value during the period included garments and textiles (US$3.8 billion, up 18.5 percent), footwear (US$1.7 billion, up 14.7 percent), and crude oil (US$1.8 billion, up 13.1 percent)
The country achieved an annual trade surplus in 2012 for the first time in two decades after three years of narrowing deficits, as the slowest economic growth in 13 years curbed import demand.