Vietnam’s trade gap posted at $1.83 bln in Jan-Feb

Vietnam’s trade deficit was $1.83 billion in Jan-Feb, accounting for 14.8 percent of the total export turnover, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The country’s export turnover in February is estimated to reach $5.25 billion, rising 41.3 percent over last February, bringing the total figure in Jan-February to $12.34 billion, a year-on-year rise of 40.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the country’s import spending in February was $6.2 billion, up 21.3 percent from last February and the figure in Jan-February was $14.2 billion, up 26.8 percent year-on-year.

The aforementioned figures have been announced at an online meeting of summing up the operations in February by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. These figures coincide with the statistics announced by the Ministry of Planning and Investment by late February.

At the same time, the ministry also released some other official statistics such as the country’s total industrial output in February that is estimated to reach 59.65 trillion dong, rising 17.7 percent from February 2010 but falling 16.3 percent from January 2011.

Totally, in Jan-Feb, the country’s total industrial output is estimated to reach 130.93 trillion dong, a year-on-year rise of 14.6 percent.

During the first two months this year, state-run enterprises posted high growth of 19.4 percent from the same period of previous year. Of which, some of them posted higher growth than the average growth (14.6 percent).

The country’s total retail sales and services in February is estimated to reach 149.74 trillion dong, falling 3.2 percent from January and the accumulated figure in Jan-February is estimated to reach 304.3 trillion dong, up 23.7 percent year-on-year.

Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) in February surged 2.09 percent from January 2011, up 12.31 percent from February 2010 and up 3.87 percent over December 2010. – Tuoitre

Tags: Vietnam trade, Vietnam trade gap 2011