Vietnam's seven-month trade surplus higher than estimate: customs

By：Xinhua Update：2016-08-16

HANOI, Aug. 16 -- Vietnam saw a trade surplus of some 2.25 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of 2016, higher than earlier estimate, according to Vietnam Customs on Tuesday.

A report by Vietnam Customs on real trade statistics of local companies showed that the country's real trade surplus during seven-month period stood higher than the previous estimate made by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

In Vietnam, the GSO-published monthly socio-economic statistics is calculated from the 15th day of the previous month to the 15th day of the reference month.

From January to July, GSO said Vietnam was likely to enjoy a trade surplus of some 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

According to Vietnam Customs, as of the end of July 2016, Vietnam exported some 96.99 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods and commodities, up 5.4 percent year-on-year.

Among the figure, foreign direct investment (FDI) firms pocketed 67.6 billion U.S. dollars from exports, up 8.6 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the country spent around 94.74 billion U.S. dollars on imports, down 1.2 percent year-on-year, with import revenue of FDI sector being 55.54 billion U.S. dollars, down 2.1 percent year-on-year.

Vietnam earned the highest export revenue from cell phones and accessories in seven-month period, with 19.603 billion U.S. dollars, up 14.3 percent year-on-year.

At the same time, despite experiencing a decrease of 6.3 percent year-on-year, machinery, equipment and spare parts continued to become the import item with the highest revenue of 15.343 billion U.S. dollars, said Vietnam Customs.