VINACHEM

The import value in June was forecast to reach US$8.2 billion, bringing the total value for the first six months to almost US$49 billion, a year-on-year increase of 25.8 percent.

According to these figures, the trade deficit for the first half of the year is estimated to reach over US$6.65 billion. The trade deficit was just US$1 billion in January, US$1.83 billion for the first two months, US$3.03 billion for the first three months, US$4.9 billion for the first four months and nearly US$6.3 billion for the first five months.

The January-June trade gap accounts for 15.7 percent of the export value during the period, lower than the government's target of 16 percent set for the whole year. However, according to the GSO, the trade deficit actually made up 18.1 percent if the value of gold exports was excluded during that period.

Le Minh Thuy, head of the GSO's Trade Department, blamed the high trade deficit in the first half on the high import demand of domestic enterprises which was worth nearly US$27.58 billion, a rise of 22.9 percent year-on-year, and higher than the import value of foreign-invested enterprises which was worth US$21.41 billion, a rise of 29.7 percent year-on-year.

The import value of machinery-equipment-devices, and accessories and spare parts was the highest, reaching over US$6.93 billion, a rise of nearly 11 percent year-on-year. Due to the increased global prices, the value of fuel imports reached US$5.49 billion, a rise of 40.3 percent year-on-year, despite the volume being down 2.1 percent.

The import value of many raw materials used for domestic production also rose due to increased global prices, including plastics up 31.5 percent; fabric, up 38.1 percent; steel, up 7 percent; electronics, computers and spare parts, up 23.2 per cent and cotton, up 103.6 percent.

Agricultural imports also climbed, with the import value of wheat reaching US$467 million, a rise of 58.5 percent; cooking oil US$404 million, up 39.1 percent; vegetables US$407 million, up 14 percent and seafood US$206 million, up 35.5 percent.

Automobile imports reached almost US$1.55 billion, a rise of 16 percent, of which imports of CBU (complete built unit) reached 31,600 units worth US$593 million, an increase of 37.1 percent in volume and 45.9 percent in value.

Export on the rise

Thuy said the trade deficit was cushioned by rising export value of 30.3 percent, tripling the government's target of 10 percent for this year, of which the export value of domestic enterprises reached US$19.38 billion, a rise of 29.4 percent, and foreign-invested enterprises reached over US$22.95 billion, a rise of 31.1 percent.

The export of agriculture and fishery products rose significantly due to the increased global prices, including seafood rising 28 percent to nearly US$2.59 billion; rice up 16 percent to US$1.97 billion; coffee up 103 percent to US$1.93 billion and cassava up 40.4 percent to US$580 million.

Crude oil exports earned over US$3.38 billion on a volume of over 3.94 million tonnes during the period, a rise of 26.2 percent in value but a decrease of 10.5 percent in volume.

Garments and textiles earned a total export value of US$6.11 billion, a rise of 28.4 percent, and footwear exports made nearly US$2.99 billion, up 31 percent.

According to economists, promoting exports of high value-added goods and less dependence on imports of raw materials would be the most effective way to reduce the trade deficit. However, Vietnam's efforts to reduce trade imbalance in the coming time were likely to meet with difficulties due to persisting high import demand for raw materials and rising prices on the global market. /.