Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of 1.8 billion USD in the first seven months of the year, according to the General Statistic Office of Vietnam.

During the period, Vietnam earned 145.13 billion USD from shipping goods abroad, a year on year surge of 7.5 percent.

The growth in export value was mainly contributed to by 24 ‘billion dollar’ goods items, which accounted for 88.1 percent of total export revenue. Telephones and spare parts were the largest earners, followed by electronics, computers and spare parts, and garment and textiles.

Meanwhile, shipments of vegetables and fruits, coffee and cashew experienced a fall compared to the same time last year.

The US was the largest importer of Vietnam in the period while the EU and China came second and third, respectively.

Also in the reviewed period, Vietnam splashed out 143.34 billion USD on imports, up 8.3 percent year on year. Of the sum, some 60.83 billion USD was contributed by the domestic economic sector, up 12.6 percent, and 82.51 billion USD by the foreign-invested sector, growing 5.3 percent.

There were 28 goods items seeing import value of more than a billion USD, making up 85.8 percent of total purchase from foreign countries, including electronics, computers and spare parts, and machines and equipment.

Most of the goods were bought from China, the Republic of Korea and ASEAN countries.

During January-July, the domestic sector witnessed a trade deficit of 16.8 billion USD, and the foreign-invested sector reported a trade surplus of 18.6 billion USD.

By VNA