Vietnam’s Auto Import Decreases in First 3 Months

Vietnam spent 149 million U.S. dollars on importing completely-built cars in the first three months of this year, down 3 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam on Friday.

Vietnam spent 149 million U.S. dollars on importing completely-built cars in the first three months of this year, down 3 percent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam on Friday.

In the first three months, Vietnam imported 9,000 units, a year- on-year increase of 14.1 percent, said the office.

Last month, the country purchased 3,000 automobiles, worth 50 million U.S. dollars from the foreign markets.

Local insiders said the decrease in Vietnam’s automobile import turnover in the first quarter of this year partly due to the removal of tax incentives applied to imported automobiles at the end of last year.

Moreover, the Vietnamese government’s decision of limiting loans to local automobile importers as a measure to curb the trade deficit also pulled the automobile import value down, said local insiders.

Vietnam spent 1.17 billion U.S. dollars on importing 76,300 automobile units in 2009, an increase of 49.4 percent in volume and 12.6 percent in value over the corresponding period of 2008, according to the office.

CRI

Tags: Vietnam automotive, Vietnam automotive industry, Vietnam's Auto Import