Export revenue soars in first six months
(VNA)Total export revenue for the first six months of the year reached 41.5 billion USD, up 27.8 percent against the same period last year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said in a report submitted to the National Assembly's Economic Committee on June 21.
The increase nearly tripled the target of 10 percent set earlier this year by the National Assembly (NA), the ministry stated in its report.
Export turnover of many products also increased sharply. Rubber topped the list with the growth rate of nearly 96 percent.
Coffee followed with an 81 percent increase while textiles and garments also surged more than 30 percent during the period.
The ministry estimated that a rise in export volume and a sharp price hike on the world market had contributed to lifting the country's export turnover in the first half of the year by roughly 2.7 billion USD.
Exports to a number of large markets including the US , the EU, Japan and China rose between 22-40 percent, the ministry said.
Imports, meanwhile, were up 26.4 percent compared with the same period last year, at 49 billion USD.
This puts the trade deficit for the first half of the year at around 7.5 billion USD, equal to 18 percent of the total export value and higher than the ceiling rate of 16 per cent targeted by the NA earlier this year.
Industry insiders were concerned that the trade deficit would continue to rise due to increased imports, and urged ministries and agencies to take bolder measures to control the trade gap. The General Statistics Office reported last month's trade deficit increased by 17.3 percent to 1.7 billion USD, the highest level since January this year./.
