Vietnamese Commercial Counsellor in Israel Le Thai Hoa said Vietnam recorded over 650 million USD in exports to and about 750 million USD in imports from Israel during January – November.
The trade office forecast the whole-year figures at some 700 million USD and 800 million USD respectively, resulting in a trade deficit of about 100 million USD with Israel.
In October alone, bilateral trade reached 136.02 million USD, with Vietnam’s shipments down 16.3 percent month on month to 40.14 million USD while imports surging 62.1 percent to 95.88 million USD.
The same trend was seen during the 10 months, Hoa noted, adding that exports to Israel fell 11.6 percent year on year to 574.21 million USD but imports shot up 188.6 percent to 717.01 million USD.
The surge of Vietnam’s imports is attributed to the purchase of computers, electronic products and components, which have high value, from Israel, leading to a deficit of 142.8 million USD during the 10 months, he said.
Despite a population of only around 9.3 million, Israel is currently the third largest Middle Eastern export market of Vietnam, following the UAE and Turkey.
