MOIT warns about trade deficit increase
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has predicted that if the current situation continues, Vietnam’s export turnover in the last two months of the year will only reach $9.4 billion ($4.7 billion a month), which is down by 1.3% when compared to the same period of 2007.
If this happens, the total export turnover for 2008 will be $62.8 billion. The important thing that businesses need to focus on right now is finding the key to the various markets in the world.
A mountain of difficulties
Narrowed export markets and decreasing prices are the biggest problems currently facing Vietnamese exporters. The export turnover in October dropped more sharply than expected. At first, officials predicted a slight decrease in October’s exports in comparison with the average monthly export turnover in previous months: $5.1 billion vs. $5.7billion. However, the export turnover in October sharply decreased to $4.7 billion, which was $400 million lower than expected and $700 million lower than the previous month.
Blame for the decrease in export turnover last month has been placed on smaller exports of rice and rubber, as well as the lower export prices in October in comparison to September. The crude oil price, which began decreasing in September, continued sliding in October. The current oil price is equal to half of the price three months ago. The rice price has also dropped by 20% when compared to September.
The prices of key export items all have decreased: crude oil price by 4%, rubber price by 13.2%, and coffee by 11.7%. However, the price of some farm produce items have increased, including pepper by $148/ton, cinnamon by $240/ton, and tea by $72/ton. Nonetheless, the export volume of the price-increasing items was not high enough to help raise the export turnover .
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The ways out still exist
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It is undeniable that Vietnamese enterprises are facing major difficulties as their main export markets, the US and
Vietnam’s exports to Asian markets in the first 10 months of the year reached $26.5 billion, up by 47% over the same period of the last year, while the exports to Oceania were $4 billion, up by 62%, and exports to Africa were $1.05 billion (+ 75%).