The average monthly export value the country earned in the first quarter of this year reached US $8.174 billion, a year-on-year increase of US $1.567 billion and up US $99 million against last year.
Positive signs in the monthly export value showed: turnover of February rose 17.4 percent over January and that of March was up 10.2 percent from February. Export turnover of March was higher than the expected average monthly figure set for 2012 (US $9.125 billion).
In comparison with the same period in 2011, export turnover increased 23.6 percent, higher than the expected goal set for the year (13 percent) and higher than other sectors.
Export of some items doubled, such as electronics, computers and spare parts, machines, equipments and other accessories with 1.5 fold rise, wood and wooden products, up 18.3 percent, garment, up 15.4 percent, footwear, up 14 percent, seafood, up 11.7 percent, crude oil, up 9.1 percent and gemstone, up 106.7 percent.
In term of imports, import turnover slowed down, from 24.4 percent in February to 8.4 percent in March. Export of cotton reduced 36.6 percent, car, down 32.4 percent, oil and gas, down 20 percent and motorbike, down 9.3 percent.
It resulted in a trade deficit of US $251 million, much less than the US $3.334 billion figure of the same period last year. The reduction in trade imbalances contributed to improving the balance of payment and increasing foreign reserves.
The exchange rate between VND and US $ in January slightly rose (up 0.05 percent), in February down 0.41 percent and March down 0.99 percent. The Consumption Price Index (CPI) only increased 0.16 percent and up 2.55 percent for the first three months of this year.
VGP
Vietnamese
