Vietnam Predicts Exports to Increase by 30 Percent

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Oct. 14 – Vietnam's Industry and Trade Ministry predicts that total exports for the year may increase by 30 percent to US$63 billion.

The agency said that in the last three months of this year, exports would decline to US$15.7 billion from US$17.95 billion because of lower prices for key export items.

The American banking crisis is expected to affect the Vietnamese textile industry because the United States buys 55 percent of Vietnam's textile exports. The textile industry is the country's second top earner followed by shoes, which have been recently slapped by anti-dumping duty from the European Union.

The government says crude oil, Vietnam’s largest export, might finish at US$80 to US$95 per barrel, “because oil demand on international markets has declined due to the impact of the global financial crisis.”

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is the third-largest crude oil producer following Indonesia and Malaysia.

The government says that although demand for rice will increase during the last quarter of the year, prices would not rise due to ample supplies. Vietnam is the third-largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand and India.

“In the future, rice prices will not fall below $500 to $600 a ton due to high production costs while the rice planting area cannot be expanded significantly,” reports Thanh Nien News.