Vietnam Forecast to Incur US$11B-US$12B Trade Deficit This Year: Ministry

Vietnam’s trade deficit is projected to narrow to between US$11 billion and US$12 billion this year, down from US$17.516 billion in 2008, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

 

The country will fetch US$59 billion from exports and spend between US$67 billion and US$70 billion on imports this year, down from the respectively revised-down targets of US$64.57 billion and US$72.6 billion, the ministry said at a meeting on Oct 4 to discuss measures to boost production and export activities in the remaining months of the year.

 

The MoIT also forecast the country’s industrial production value in 2009 will increase 9% from a year earlier.

 

Vietnam reaped US$41.74 billion from exported goods and imported US$48.28 billion worth of goods in the first nine months of this year, down 14.3% and 25.2%, respectively, from a year earlier, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said. (Labor, GSO Sept 2009)