HCMC – Vietnam’s crude oil and fuel imports in the first two months of the year skyrocketed over the same period last year, according to official data.

Vietnam imported 1.92 million tons of gasoline worth US$1.7 billion, soaring 43.1% in volume and 56.3% in value compared to the same period last year.

Crude oil imports amounted to US$1.1 billion, 2.2 times higher than the year-ago volume and 2.1 times higher in value.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that the nation spent over US$46.6 billion importing commodities in January and February, down 16% over the year-ago period.

There were 13 groups of import goods topping US$1 billion each, accounting for 69.1% of the total import value, two of which reached over US$5 billion.

Of the total, imports of raw material for production dropped 16.6% year-on-year to US$41.2 billion, with shipments of computers and components down 8.3% to nearly US$12.8 billion; machines, equipment and accessories plunging 21.8% to US$5.5 billion; and apparel products slumping 30.3% to US$1.6 billion.