Hanoi (VNA) 𓃲– Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 2.45 billion USD in the first eight months of this year, a report from General Statistics Office (GSO) has revealed.

The eight-month trade surplus was totally contributed by the foreign-invested sector, which posted an export surplus of 15.18 billion USD, while the domestic sector witnessed a deficit of 12.73 billion USD, Le Thi Minh Thuy, Head of GSO, said. The country's trade revenue topped 221.93 billion USD in the period. Of the sum, exports contributed 112.19 billion USD, surging 5.5 percent against same period last year. The above-mentioned growth was, however, equal to two thirds of the target set earlier by the State, Thuy said. Export revenue of the domestic sector reached 32.62 billion USD, up 4 percent year-on-year, while that of the foreign-invested sector stood at 79.57 billion USD, up 6.1 percent year-on-year. Among the key export items witnessing significant turnover increases were mobile phones and components (22.3 billion USD, up 11 percent), garments and textiles (15.5 billion USD, up 4.2 percent), electronics, computers and parts (11.1 billion USD, up 11.2 percent) and footwear (8.6 billion USD, up 8.1 percent). Meanwhile, several other products witnessed export revenue reductions, including crude oil (some 1.5 billion USD, down 46.2 percent), rice (USD1.5 billion, down 14 percent), rubber (887 million USD, down 4 percent) and cassava (698 million USD, down 26 percent). The US remained the largest importer of Vietnamese goods with revenue of 24.6 billion USD. It was followed by the EU with 21.9 billion USD, China with 12.6 billion USD, Japan with 9.3 billion USD and the Republic of Korea with 7 billion USD, GSO said. From January to August, the country's imports saw a yearly modest decline of 0.3 percent to 109.74 billion USD. Imports of the foreign-invested sector plunged by 1 percent to 64.39 billion USD, while that of the domestic sector experienced a slight increase of 0.5 percent to 45.35 billion USD.-VNA