Vietnam hits trade surplus of $240 m in first two months

Vietnam's trade surplus in the first two months of 2014 is expected to reach 240 million U.S. dollars, said a report by General Statistics Office (GSO) on Tuesday. In February alone, Vietnam is likely to suffer a trade deficit of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, said the report. During the period, Vietnam's export turnover is likely to hit 21.06 billion U.S. dollars, up 12.3 percent year-on-year. The country imported commodities worth some 20.82 billion U.S. dollars, up 17 percent year-on-year, Vietnam Investment Review online newspaper quoted the report as saying. Trade surplus during January-February period of Vietnam was attributed to export growth of foreign direct investment companies (FDI) in Vietnam. According to the report, FDI sector contributed 2.09 billion U.S. dollars to Vietnam's trade surplus in first two months while domestic companies presented a trade deficit of 1.85 billion U.S. dollars during the period. If including crude oil export, FDI companies in Vietnam are estimated to earn 13.85 billion U.S. dollars from exports, up 11.8 percent year-on-year during the first two months, said the report. Vietnam has seen sharp increases in key product exports during the first two months, including phone and accessories, garment and footwear. In January-February period, phone and accessories export revenue posted an increase of 22.9 percent year-on-year while those of garment and footwear were 30.1 and 27.4 percent year-on- year, respectively.