Trade deficit target missed as imports surge

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HCMC – Vietnam missed the target of harnessing the trade deficit at 16% of its export revenue in the first four months of the year.

The trade gap in April is estimated to amount to US$1.4 billion, sending the total in the first four months rising to US$4.9 billion, with the ratio of trade deficit to export revenue standing at 19.2% and 18.2% respectively.

Meanwhile, the Government’s target for the trade deficit-export revenue ratio is 16%.

Statistics from Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade show the country’s exports grew 35.7% year-on-year to US$26.94 billion in January-April, driven by rising prices and export volumes.

But the nation’s import bill in the four months to end-April also leapt 29.1% year-on-year to US$31.83 billion, leaving a trade deficit of nearly US$4.9 billion, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Chu Thang Trung, deputy director general of the Department of Trade Policy for Asia-Pacific Markets at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the growing trade deficit resulted from Vietnam’s huge imports of materials for local production as well as finished goods.