Total export revenue for the first six months of the year reached US$41.5 billion 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 said.

 

Export turnover of many products also increased sharply. Rubber topped the list with the growth rate of nearly 96 percent.

 

Coffee came second 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 driving the country's export turnover in the first half of the year up by roughly US$2.7 billion.

 

Exports to a number of large markets including the US, EU, Japan and China increased by 22-40 percent, the ministry said.

 

Imports, meanwhile, reached US$49 billion up 26.4 percent compared with the same period last year.

 

This puts the trade deficit for the first half of the year at around US$7.5 billion, 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 that last month's trade deficit increased by 17.3 percent to US$1.7 billion, the highest level since January this year.

 

(VNA/VOVNews)