Vietnam achieves US$2.5b trade surplus in 9 months
(VOV) -Vietnam has gained a trade surplus of US$2.5 billion in the first nine months of 2014, a report from the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.
This is the eighth consecutive month that the country has achieved a trade surplus. It achieved a US$244-million trade surplus in February after incurring a US$100-million trade deficit in January.
Its surplus reached US$1 billion in the first quarter, US$683 million in the first four months, US$1.6 billion in the first five months and US$1.3 billion in the first half. After seven months, the surplus increased to US$1.26 billion.
The nation's total exports earned US$109.63 billion in the first nine months, a 14.2-per cent year-on-year increase, and its total imports reached US$107.16 billion, an 11.1-per cent year-on-year increase. The imports mostly consisted of materials and sub-materials for production.
The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector accounted for the largest proportion of export and import value in the first nine months, with exports worth US$73 billion, a 14.2-per cent year-on-year increase, and imports worth US$60.3 billion, a 9.8-per cent year-on-year increase.
Meanwhile, GSO experts noted signs of recovery in domestic enterprise production, as the enterprises imported more materials and sub-materials.
According to GSO, in the first nine months, domestic enterprises imported US$7 billion worth of fabrics, a 15.1-per cent year-on-year increase; US$3.5 billion worth of garments and textile accessories, a 25.3-per cent year-on-year increase; and US$2.3 billion worth of plastic materials, a 23.1-per cent year-on-year increase.
The United States remained the country's largest export market in the first eight months, accounting for US$21 billion in exports, or 22.7 per cent more than that of the same period last year.
Other significant export markets include the European Union with US$20.1 billion in exports, or a 13 per cent rise from that of last year, and ASEAN with $14 billion.
A number of key exports achieved high growth in the first eight months of the year, including textiles and garments with US$15.5 billion, an 18.9-per cent year-on-year rise; telephone and telephone components with $17 billion, a 10.1-per cent year-on-year rise; and crude oil with US$5.78 billion, a 9.7-per cent year-on-year rise.
The GSO also reported that the largest import market was China withUS$31.1 billion, a 15.6 per cent rise from that of the same period last year.