In the second half of December 2011 (from December 16 to 31), Vietnam's export turnover reached $4.9 billion and import value was $4.87 billion, according to general Department of Vietnam Customs.
Thus, in the period, the country posted a trade surplus of $30 million, bringing the country's trade deficit in December to $270 million (in the first half of December 2011, the country's trade gap was $300 million), down 52 percent from November 2011. In December 2011, Vietnam's export turnover fetched $9.087 billion, up 2.6 percent on year, and import value was $9.356 billion, down 0.7 percent after increasing 3 percent in the previous month.
According to the statistics, the country's trade deficit in December was the lowest level for five months 2011 and if excluding the trade surplus in July, this would be the lowest trade gap in 2011.
As reported by the general Department of Vietnam Customs, the export turnover of gemstone and precious metal and its products in December reached nearly $49 million, down 23.5 percent month on month. Thus, from early 2011 till the end of December, the country's export turnover for this group gained $2.665 billion, down 5.6 percent on year.
Apparel product still remained an export item with high value of over $1.3 billion in December, rising 11.5 percent month on month.
Accumulatively, in 2011, Vietnam's export turnover was estimated at $96.9 billion, rising 34.2 percent from 2010 and the import spending was $106.7 billion, up 25.9 percent on year.
Therefore, Vietnam's trade deficit in 2011 was $9.8 billion, down 22 percent against the trade gap of 2010 ($12.5 billion). The trade gap ratio 2011 was equal to 10.1 percent of the country's total export turnover in 2011, much lower than the government's target at less than 16 percent.
In 2011, some commodities posted high export turnover namely apparel products ($14 billion, rising 25.3 percent on year), crude oil ($7.2 billion, up 46.1 percent), telephone and components ($6.9 billion, up 198 percent), footwear ($6.5 billion, up 27.9 percent) and seafood ($6.1 billion, rising 21.8 percent).
Regarding the import products, some items posted high import value such as machineries, equipments, instruments and spare parts ($15.2 billion, up 13 percent on year), petroleum ($9.9 billion, up 61.6 percent), computer, electronics and components ($8 billion, up 53.1 percent) and cloth ($6.4 billion, up 4.5 percent on year).
Leader of Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on January 5, 2012 said that in 2012, Vietnam's export turnover targets to grow 13 percent from 2011 to reach an export turnover of about $108.8 billion, trade gap would be about $13 billion, equaling to about 12 percent of the country's total export turnover.
