(CPV) – Figures by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam showed that export and import turnover in January, 2011 reached an estimated USD 6 billion and USD 7 billion, respectively.
With these figures, the trade gap this month was USD 1 billion, as much as 17% of export turnover. Compared to the same period of 2010, the figure rose slightly over that of USD 926 million of last year but both export and import turnover surged sharply with 18% and 15%, respectively.
Among commodities for export, seafood, rubber, cashews, coffee, iron and steel posted high growth, including seafood valued at USD 400 million, up 30% and rubber at USD 337 million, up 46.5% in volume and 146% in value. However, a reduction was seen in export turnover of tea and rice.
Specifically, on the growth impetus of last year, garments and textiles enjoyed an export turnover of USD 900 million in the first month of 2011, taking the lead among Vietnam’s major export commodities.
For imports, a noticeable change was witnessed in the volume of imported autos, especially a sharp surge in imports of overseas-built autos. Moreover, materials for production such as paper, cotton, fibre and fabric were imported in higher volume in January.