89 percent of imports raw materials for domestic production: Ministry

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Up to 89 percent of the imports in the first four months of this year are raw materials and accessories for domestic production with a combined value of 106.6 billion USD, up 16.8 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

It reported on May 4 that Vietnam’s total imports expanded 15.7 percent year-on-year to an estimated 119.8 billion USD in the period.

In April alone, the figure was estimated to reach 32.2 billion USD, down 1.5 percent month-on-month and up 15.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

The import of energy products strongly surged, partly due to scarce supply.

Notably, the import turnovers of gasoline and oil, coal, crude oil and liquefied natural gas surged by 146.9 percent, 123 percent, 63.7 percent and 62.7 percent, respectively.

In addition, the import of other items also increased sharply such as petroleum products (up 30.3 percent), chemicals (up 29.3 percent), chemical product (26.71 percent), fertiliser (73.3 percent), rubber (34 percent), mobile phones and accessories (20.8 percent).

China was the largest market of Vietnam in the first four months, with an estimated turnover of 36.78 percent, up 8.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

Vietnam also imported goods from the Republic of Korea, ASEAN, Japan, EU, and the US with respective values of 23.3 billion USD, 16.4 billion USD, 8.2 billion USD, 5.3 billion USD and 4.7 billion USD./.