Hanoi (VNA) ꦏ- Vietnam posted a trade surplus of nearly 1.8 billion U SD in the first seven months of this year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

GSO experts attributed the surplus to a rise in export values, while import revenues declined. The nation’s export turnover during the period rose 5.3 percent year-on-year to 96.83 billion USD, while its import value saw a modest reduction of 1 percent to more than 95 billion USD. Of export turnover, foreign-invested businesses generated 68.9 billion USD, up 6.5 percent year-on-year, while the remainder of 27.93 billion USD came from domestic firms, surging 2.5 percent on-year. Some key export staples, during the first seven months, included mobile phones and components up 13.5 percent to 19.5 billion USD; textile and garments up 5.4 percent to 13.2 billion USD; electronics and components up 9.5 percent to 9.4 billion USD; and footwear up 8 percent to 7.53 billion USD. Encouraging export growth was also seen in handbags, wallets, suitcases, hats and umbrellas, seafood, cashew nuts as well as fruit and vegetables. However, exports of some products declined in this period, with crude oil slipping 44.5 percent to 1.4 billion USD, cassava and cassava products slumping 28.5 percent to 614 million USD, rubber down 10 percent to 679 million USD and steel and iron sinking 3 percent to 988 million USD. As for imports, machines, equipment, oil and gas, as well as many raw materials, which account for nearly 92 percent of the country’s total import values, dropped 5.8 percent year-on-year to 15.4 billion USD in seven months. Petroleum, animal feed also saw yearly reductions of 17 percent and 5 percent, respectively. GSO said China remained Vietnam’s largest import market. From January to July, Vietnam imported 27.4 billion USD worth of goods from China, nearly four times and five times higher than figures from Japan and the EU. That has resulted in a trade deficit of 16.7 billion USD Vietnam recorded with the neighboring country. Vietnam was striving to fetch a total of 178 billion USD from exports by year-end, up 10 percent from a year ago, and control trade deficit at 5 percent.-VNA