Viet Nam’s trade surplus rose to US$2.8 billion in the first eight months of this year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported yesterday.

Total export value increased 14.5 per cent year-on-year to $155.4 billion during the first eight months. Of which, the domestic economic sector achieved a year-on-year surge of 17.4 per cent to $45.11 billion, while the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector gained $110.3 billion, an increase of 13.4 per cent.

The FDI sector had lower growth in export value against the domestic sector but it holds 71 per cent of total national export value, said a GSO expert.

Many key export products gained high growth in value during the first eight months. Export value rose 15.7 per cent to $30.9 billion for telephone and parts; and 14.2 per cent to $18.4 billion for electronic products, computer and their parts. It surged 26.9 per cent to $10.6 billion for machine, equipment and parts, and 9.6 per cent to $10.5 billion for footwear.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam saw strong growth for some farming products, including fruits and vegetables (up 14.8 per cent to $2.7 billion) and rice (up 23.6 per cent to $2.2 billion).

However, other commodities faced difficulty increasing export value due to falling global prices. Coffee exports fell 3.1 per cent in value to $2.5 billion, though they increased 14.8 per cent in volume while rubber fell 12.1 per cent in value to $1.2 billion but rose 7.9 per cent in volume. Pepper exports also dropped 35.7 per cent in value to $584 million while surging 4.7 per cent in volume.

Crude oil exports fell in both volume and value to 46.6 per cent and 24.6 per cent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

The office said the growth of national import value was below that of export value.

The import figure rose 11.6 per cent year-on-year to $152.6 million. Of which, the domestic sector’s value reached $61.85 billion, up 11.8 per cent while the FDI sector stood at $90.81 billion, up 11.4 per cent.

Imports mainly served production of export products in the FDI sector. The country bought $26.9 billion of electronic products, computer and parts, up 13.7 per cent; $9.3 billion for telephone and parts, up 4.3 per cent; and $8.5 billion for cloth, up 16.1 per cent.

Some others for the domestic production had high growth, including steel (up 10.2 per cent to $6.7 billion), plastic (up 17.1 per cent to $5.8 billion), petrol and oil (up 26.4 per cent to $5.7 billion), metal products (up 35.9 per cent to $5.3 billion), and chemical products (up 26.3 per cent to $3.3 billion).

The office said in the first eight months, Viet Nam had a large trade surplus of $40 billion with the US and the EU, and a trade deficit of $37 billion with South Korea and China and $4 billion with ASEAN. – VNS