Vietnam Q1 trade surplus at 1.64 bln dlrs: govt

© 2009 AFP - Vietnam Tuesday said it estimated a trade surplus of 1.64 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2009 as imports fell due to weaker demand at home and lower output amid a global economic meltdown.

The country, which recorded a trade deficit in 2008, saw imports dive 45 percent to 11.83 billion dollars year on year, while exports were up 2.4 percent to 13.47 billion, the official General Statistics Office (GSO) said.

The sale overseas of gold, precious stones and jewellery earned 2.28 billion dollars in the three months to March -- an increase of almost 50 times from the same quarter last year -- the GSO said.

Large quantities of gold were imported during last year's soaring inflation, "and now there is so much gold that gold is flowing out," the World Bank's acting country director, Martin Rama, said Monday ahead of the data release.

Vietnam, a major exporter of goods such as clothing and footwear as well as commodities including rice, coffee and seafood, has already been hit by downturns in the recession-hit United States, Europe and other markets.

"The worry is that Vietnam did not earn much from key export products like crude oil, garments and textiles or footwear due to the impact of the world economic crisis," said a GSO official who asked not to be named.

GSO figures showed the country earned 1.4 billion dollars from the sale of crude oil, 1.9 billion dollars from textiles and garments, and 915 million dollars from footwear during the quarter.

All the figures were down against the same three-month period last year.

The government earlier estimated Vietnam's trade deficit in 2008 widened to a record 17 billion dollars from 12.4 billion dollars in 2007.

Imports have fallen from levels of early last year when they were about three billion dollars per month above exports, according to the World Bank, before the government took measures to curb an overheating economy.

Vietnam needs imported goods to help fuel its developing economy which expanded 6.2 percent in 2008, the lowest level in almost a decade.

The first-quarter reduction in imports was "a worrying sign as it showed the stagnancy in some areas of the economy," said Pham Van Liem, deputy head of an industrial policy research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. "Vietnamese enterprises are hard-hit by the world economic crisis," Liem said, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper.

GSO figures showed that, in the first quarter, Vietnam's spending on imports of machinery and equipment, petroleum and steel were down between about 30 and 70 percent.

The agency also drastically revised figures for February, saying a previously estimated trade deficit of 100 million dollars was now a surplus of 840 million.

"The reduction in the import value of machinery, equipment and materials for textiles, garments and footwear showed that production is slowing down," Liem said, urging an increase in trade promotion and a search for new markets.

The unnamed GSO official also called for further government action such as its decision, effective Tuesday, to slightly devalue the dong by widening its trading band.

Vietnam said Tuesday that inflation was almost 14.5 percent year on year for the first quarter of 2009, reflecting a continued easing from the record 28.3 percent hit last August.HANOI, March 24, 2009 (AFP)