Trade deficit estimated at US$2.7 billion in six months

Vietnam posted a trade deficit of US$2.7 billion in the first half of 2017 including nearly US$13 billion of trade deficit reported by the domestic sector and over US$10 billion of trade surplus from foreign direct investment (FDI).

Trade deficit estimated at US$2.7 billion in six months

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), Vietnam earned total export revenue of nearly US$98 billion in the first six months of this year, up 19% over the same period last year.

Of which, the domestic sector posted an export revenue of US$27 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14% while the FDI sector reported an export revenue of US$71 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21%.

During the period, the total import revenue reached US$100.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24% including nearly US$40 billion worth of import revenue from the domestic sector, up 19% and US$60.6 billion in import revenue from the FDI sector, up 28%.

The GSO also announced that the total export revenue of the service sector reached US$6.4 billion in the first six months, up over 7% over the same period last year. Of which, tourism services contributed 67.7% to the total export revenue of the service sector and was followed by transportation services at 19.5%.

In the meantime, the service sector posted an import revenue of US$8.2 billion, up 3.5% over the same period in 2016, resulting in a trade deficit of US$1.8 billion.