Cai Mep port - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam’s foreign trade surged 22.3 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year to exceed 599.1 billion USD, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The figure reached 59.7 billion USD in November, up 8.5 percent month-on-month and 19.7 percent year-on-year, the GSO announced on November 29.

The country exported 29.9 billion USD worth of commodities in November, up 3.6 percent month-on-month and 18.5 percent year-on-year. It raised the 11-month export turnover to close to 299.7 billion USD, up 17.5 percent from a year earlier, with the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) contributing 73.6 percent of the total, or 220.68 billion USD, up 20 percent year-on-year.

Thirty-four commodity items earned export revenue of 1 billion USD upwards during the period, which together made up 93.5 percent of the total. Industrial and processing products were the biggest currency earners, with revenue accounting for 89 percent of the total exports, or 266.75 billion USD, up 18 percent.

The US remained the biggest buyer of Vietnamese products, importing 84.8 billion USD worth of goods from the Southeast Asian country in the period, a year-on-year increase of 22.2 percent. It was followed by China (50.5 billion USD), the EU (35.7 billion USD), ASEAN (25.9 billion USD), the Republic of Korea (20 billion USD), and Japan (18 billion USD).

In November, Vietnam spent 29.8 billion USD on imports, up 14 percent month-on-month and 20.8 percent year-on-year. The 11-month import revenue rose by 27.5 percent year-on-year to 299.45 billion USD, 93.6 percent of which were spent on purchasing inputs for production.

China was the largest supplier of products for Vietnam, exporting to the Southeast Asian country 98.5 billion USD worth of goods, up 32 percent from the same period last year. It was followed by the Republic of Korea (50.3 billion USD), ASEAN (37 billion USD), Japan (20.3 billion USD), the EU (15.5 billion USD), and the US (14.2 billion USD).

The country posted a trade surplus of 225 million USD from January to November, compared to 20.19 billion USD in the same period last year./.