Vietnam's trade deficit will more than double to $10.5 billion in the first eleven months of the year, as imports jump by one third to $54.1 billion, a state-run newspaper said on Saturday.
January to November exports will bring in $43.6 billion, a rise of 20 percent from a year earlier, Vietnam News said, quoting a government statistics office report. The office estimated November exports at $4.5 billion and imports at $5.75 billion, leaving the monthly deficit at $1.25 billion, up from the $1.05 billion deficit estimated for October.
Vietnam had a trade gap of $4.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2006. The deficit estimate for the January to November period is already higher than a government projection of $9 billion for the whole of the year.
The government has forecast the gap to widen to $10.8-$10.9 billion in 2008 as more foreign investment pours in since it joined the World Trade Organisation in January 2007. Vietnam exported 13.8 million tonnes of crude oil in the first 11 months, earning $7.5 billion, a fall in value of 2.3 percent from the same period last year, the report said.
Sales of textiles and garments were the second-biggest export, with revenues rising 32 percent from the first 11 months of last year to $7.05 billion, followed by $3.5 billion from footwear and $3.4 billion from shrimp and fish. Coffee exports in the first 11 months would reach a record 1.1 million tonnes, 35.5 percent up from a year earlier.
Vietnam, Southeast Asia's third-largest producer of crude oil, would still have to spend $6.55 billion to buy refined oil products during the first 11 months, a rise of 20 percent, as it lacks refineries.