Vietnam posted the budget collection of 975.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (42.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of this year, down 11.5 percent on-year, according to the country's Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.
Domestic revenue over the months declined 8.3 percent from the same period last year to 812.4 trillion Vietnamese dong, while revenue from import-export activities fell by 20.1 percent to nearly 134.6 trillion Vietnamese dong, according to the ministry.
Between January and September, Vietnam's budget spending stood at roughly 1,114 trillion Vietnamese dong, up 8.1 percent on-year. Specifically, the expenditure for investment and development totaled 269.2 trillion Vietnamese dong, while interest payments reached roughly 80.7 trillion Vietnamese dong and regular spending stood at 756.9 trillion Vietnamese dong.
As of Sept. 24, some 17.5 trillion Vietnamese dong had been spent on COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control and supporting affected people, said the ministry.
Vietnam aims to achieve a budget deficit of 234.8 trillion Vietnamese dong, or 3.44 percent of gross domestic product earlier projected for this year, according to the country's top legislature. (1 U.S. dollar equals 23,189 Vietnamese dong)