General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong said at a press conference in Hanoi on December 29 that the country's exports went down by 4.4% while imports dropped by 8.9%, which was attributed to a decline in the global demand.

However, the country achieved a record-breaking trade surplus of 28 billion USD, significantly surpassing the figure of 12.1 billion USD recorded last year.

The export turnover was estimated to reach 355.5 billion USD this year, down 4.4% year on year.

The domestic economic sector contributed 95.55 billion USD to Vietnam’s total trade, witnessing a marginal 0.3% decline and constituting 26.9% of the total export turnover. Meanwhile, the foreign-invested sector (including crude oil) contributed 259.95 billion USD, registering a 5.8% decrease, and accounting for 73.1%.

Notably, 35 commodities earned over 1 billion USD from exports, equivalent to 93.6% of the total export turnover. Among them, seven raked in more than 10 billion USD, representing 66% of the total.

Out of the 327.5 billion USD worth of imports, 117.29 billion USD came from the domestic economic sector while the remainder from the foreign-invested sector, marking respective decreases of 7.2% and 9.8%.

There were 44 commodity categories with import value exceeding 1 billion USD, or 92.4% of the total import turnover. Among them, four commodities saw import turnover surpassing 10 billion USD, making up a significant 46.8%.

While a considerable trade surplus was maintained, Vietnam continued to experience a deficit in service trade, with 19.59 billion USD worth of exports and 29.06 billion USD worth of imports.

Thus, considering the overall trade in goods and services, Vietnam has still enjoyed a surplus of 18.53 billion USD.

In order to achieve international trade goals set by the National Assembly, Huong proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade should continue refining mechanisms and policies while creating a macroeconomic environment conducive to exports.

The ministry should also minimise risks associated with trade remedy investigations to foster sustainable export growth. This involves intensifying efforts in forecasting and providing early warnings to businesses about products that may be subject to investigations, she said./.VNA