Vietnam had achieved a trade surplus of USD284 million this year after 20 years of running in a deficit, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).
The previous trade surplus recorded was in 1992 at US$100 million.
According to director of the GSO’s Trade Department Le Thi Minh Thuy, the trade surplus was attributed to the high growth rate of exports which nearly doubled the goal set by the National Assembly, while import growth rate was three times lower.
Vietnam managed to maintain exports to traditional markets such as Europe, even though the global economy was faltering.
The European market became the leading export market for Vietnam this year with turnover of USD20.3 billion, up 25 percent over last year, followed by the US (USD19.6 billion, up 15.6 percent), Southeast Asian markets (USD17.2 billion, up 27.1 percent), and Japan (USD13 billion, up 21.4 percent).
Statistics also showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) saw high growth to reach US$72.298 billion in export revenue, accounting for more than 63 percent of the country’s total figure and increasing by 31.2 percent over last year, while export value from the domestic sector was USD42.333 billion, up only 1.32 percent.
There were 19 out of 29 export commodities of Vietnam that reported revenues ranging from USD1.5 billion to more than USD15 billion, including garments and textiles (USD15.35 billion, up 7.1 percent), phones and components (USD12.644 billion, up 97.7 percent), computers and electronics (USD7.882 billion, up 69.1 percent), and crude oil (USD8.4 billion, up 15.9 percent).
Some products saw declining exports, such as rubber (down 12.6 percent in value), and coal (down 22.8 percent).
Imports steadied with a low growth rate of 7.1 percent, with 15 out of 30 import commodities seeing declines compared with last year, like automobiles (down 32.5 percent), and animal and vegetable oil (down 21.9 percent).
Petrol and oil imports fell the furthest to USD8.894 billion and 9.119 million tonnes, decreasing 10 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.
Liquefied petroleum gas, rubber and fertilizers were among those to report decreases in imports, while imports of electronic products, computers and components rose 66.8 percent to reach turnover of USD13.98 billion, vehicles 43.9 percent and fabric 4.7 percent.
Thuy said that the low growth of imports reflected the stagnation of domestic production.
Total imports of the domestic sector reached USD54.9 billion, a decline of 6.7 percent over last year, while the FDI sector totaled USD60.338 billion, an increase of 23.5 percent.
China remained Vietnam’s biggest import market, with turnover of USD28.9 billion compared to export of USD12.2 billion.