HANOI, March 24: Vietnam expects to see its trade deficit widening to $1.3 billion in the first three months of this year when imports are estimated to surge 33.6 per cent to $11.8 billion, a state-run newspaper reported on Saturday.January to March exports are estimated at $10.5 billion, up 17.9 per cent from the same period last year, when the country had a small trade surplus of $70 million, the Vietnam News daily quoted a General Statistics Office report as saying.

Vietnam had a trade deficit of $1.07 billion in the first two months of this year.

Crude oil exports -- Vietnam's biggest foreign exchange earner -- would fall 14.6 per cent on a year earlier to $1.7 billion during the first quarter and rice shipment would plunge 44.3 per cent to 710,000 tonnes.

Rubber exports are estimated at 148,000 tonnes, 9.4 per cent lower than a year earlier, the report said. Last year, rubber export earnings enjoyed the highest growth among Vietnam's export items, jumping 58.3 per cent on 2005 to $1.27 billion.

However, coffee exports in the first quarter of 2007 are estimated to more than double to $695 million, the newspaper said without giving any shipment volume for the commodity.

Vietnam is the world's top exporter of robusta coffee. Among the import items during the January to March period, spending for machinery and equipment are estimated to surge 66.1 per cent on-year to $2.2bn, the newspaper report said—Reuters