HANOI - A growing trade gap with China and rising raw material prices helped push Vietnam's trade deficit this month to an estimated US$1.05 billion, with imports of $7.15 billion and exports at $6.1 billion, a government report said on Monday.
A persistent trade deficit has prompted Vietnam to devalue its dong currency three times since November 2009, most recently in August.
January to September exports rose an estimated 20.5 percent from the same period last year to $51.5 billion, while imports jumped 22.7 percent to $60.08 billion, bringing the nine-month trade deficit at $8.58 billion, a Planning and Investment Ministry report said.
"The trade deficit from China is still growing strongly and it accounts for nearly 80 percent of the total trade deficit. Vietnam has been suffering from a trade deficit with Asia while it still enjoys a surplus with all other continents," it said.
Imports from China leapt 23.5 percent in the nine-month period, while imports from other Southeast Asian countries were up some 20 percent and from South Korea they were up 11 percent.
The report said commodity price increases over the past year also contributed "considerably" to the increase of total imports, and noted that prices for metals, oil products, plastics and yarn had risen sharply.
"The increases in prices of these goods alone pushed the total value of imports up by about $4.2 billion," it said.
The Southeast Asian country posted a trade deficit of $6.22 billion in the first nine months of 2009, based on the ministry's report, which did not give any comparative figures for last September.
Despite September's deficit, Monday's report said exports showed "positive signals", with the increase of 20.5 percent far exceeding an initial target for the year of 6 percent.
Imports grew strongly, too, and a state-run newspaper quoted the government statistics office on Monday as saying the trade deficit could come under pressure to rise in the coming months because of a cyclical year-end increase in imports and the weakening US dollar.
"It is necessary to maintain measures to check imports," the newspaper Dau Tu reported.
September's deficit was in line with numbers from the previous eight months, which ranged between $1.3 billion and $0.8 billion.
Earlier this month, the ministry said it expected the trade deficit for the whole of 2010 to be nearly $14 billion, with exports rising 18.2 percent and imports up 16.5 percent, after a gap of $12.25 billion in 2009.
It forecast Vietnam's trade deficit to edge up to $14.55 billion in 2011 as growth of exports and imports was projected to slow to around 10 percent.
The planning ministry also said Vietnam's gross domestic product grew 6.52 percent in the January to September period. It did not give a figure for the third quarter. A state run newspaper quoted the ministry's GDP figure last week.
"The economy is still moving in a positive direction," Monday's report said.
