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Vietnam maintains high export
growth rate
HANOI -
Vietnamese exports in the first four months of the
year maintained an annual growth rate of 23.2%,
bringing the nation's total export turnover to
US$9.65 billion, according to the General
Statistics Office (GSO).
Foreign-invested
enterprises reported an increase in exports of 32%
over the same period last year, with a value of
$5.45 billion, while exports by domestic
enterprises rose 13.4%.
Despite a decrease
of 6.1% in volume, crude oil exports remained the
country's biggest earner, contributing $2.3
billion, up 45.3% over the previous year due to
soaring world oil prices. Crude oil has reached
more than $50 per barrel.
Exports of
timber and wood products in the first four months
also shot up by over 57%, earning the country $511
million.
Officials attributed the increase
to Vietnam's success in markets such as the
European Union, the United States, Japan, South
Korea and China, selective markets with a high
demand for diversified and high-quality products.
The GSO also reported that exports of
garments and textiles rebounded in April primarily
due to mounting demand for summer-autumn clothing
and US and EU decisions to impose quotas on
China's booming textile exporters.
With
earnings so far this year of $1.32 billion, the
garment industry has already met one-fourth of its
annual export target.
Experts forecast
that Vietnam's exports in the coming months will
be higher thanks to the EU's elimination of quotas
on Vietnamese garments and the Vietnamese
government's approval of its enterprises' request
to transfer clothing quotas to the US.
Seafood fetched $684 million through
April, up 7.4%. However, the April growth rate
remained lower than the 8% rate in the first
quarter.
Experts attributed the slowdown
to limited supply of domestic resources and the
US's new bond regulation imposed on shrimp
importers.
Increases in export turnover
were reported in agriculture, electronics,
electrical cable, plastics and coal, with growth
rates from 42.6% to 87.3% during the period.
Despite outstanding achievements in
exports, Vietnam still faces a trade deficit. The
nation's total imports in the first four months of
the year reached $11.43 billion, up 22.4% over the
same period last year.
Besides outlays of
$1.49 billion for petrol imports, the country's
spending went from $100 million to nearly $1.7
billion for imports of steel and iron, machinery,
electronics, plastics, paper, textiles, timber,
autos and motorbikes.
Nevertheless, trade,
investment and planning experts said the size of
the trade deficit is acceptable as prices of the
country's imported necessities on the world market
were high.
Experts forecast that the
country in the next few months will have to spend
more for imports of clothing, leather, furniture
and electronics, as industrial demand for raw
materials and equipment will be higher.
Besides climbing steel and iron imports,
experts also anticipated similar trends for
fertilizer, noting that fertilizers produced by
the Phu My Plant in the southern province of Ba
Ria Vung Tau are not yet suitable to Vietnamese
fields.
(Asia Pulse/VNA) |
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