Vietnam’s foreign trade is forecast to hit 500 billion USD at the end of 2019, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

Illustrative image (Source: baodautu.vn/) 

In the first 11 months of the year, the country’s foreign trade exceeded 473.73 billion USD, with exports reaching over 241.42 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 18.1 percent. Exports from domestic firms, which accounted for 31 percent of the total, grew 18.1 percent, while that of FDI firms expanded 3.8 percent.

The country enjoyed a trade surplus of 9.1 billion USD during the period.

Some 30 items recorded export revenue of over 1 billion USD, which together contributed to 91.6 percent of total exports. Phones and components were the biggest currency earner, generating 48.7 billion USD, up 5.4 percent year on year. The products made up 20.2 percent of the total.

Last year, Vietnam’s import-export value topped 480 billion USD, up 11 percent from a year earlier. Of the figure, exports hit 243.5 billion USD, up 13.2 percent.