Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.7billion USD in August, which brought the trade surplus for the January-Augustperiod to 3.4 billion USD, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

In the 8-month period, export value was estimated at 169.98 billion USD,up 7.3 percent on a yearly basis. The domestic sector earned 52.04 billion USD,up 13.9 percent, which was much higher than the 4.6 percent growth posted bythe foreign-invested sector.

The share of the domestic sector in national export value also rose to30.6 percent, compared to only 28.8 percent in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the foreign-invested sector earned 117.94 billion USD,accounting for 69.4 percent of the national figure, and up 4.6 percent year onyear.

Twenty six export items earned more than 1 billion USD each for thecountry, and together they accounted for 89.5 percent of the total exportvalue.

In the period, the US was the biggest export market, buying 38.6 billionUSD worth of Vietnamese goods, up 25.3 percent year on year. It was followed bythe EU with 27.7 billion USD, down 0.5 percent. China came third with 23.8percent, down 2.5 percent, and the ASEAN was next with 17.3 billion USD, up 3.6percent.

The country spent 166.58 billion USD on imports in the 8-month period,up 8.5 percent from the same period last year, with the domestic sector spending70.43 billion USD (up 13.9 percent) and the foreign-invested sector, 70.43billion USD (up 4.8 percent).

China was the leading import market of Vietnam, selling 49.2 billion USDworth of products to Vietnam, up 18.2 percent, while the Republic of Korea camesecond with 31 billion USD, down 0.3 percent.

Next came the ASEAN with 21.6 billion USD, up 4.6 percent, and Japanwith 12.4 billion USD, up 0.6 percent.-VNA