The country’s export turnover reached an estimated 11.7 billion USD last month, representing a year-on-year rise of 12.7 percent, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade at an online meeting in Hanoi on November 4.

Of the sum, foreign direct investment (IDI) businesses (excluding crude oil ones) contributed 7.45 billion USD, up 24.5 percent against the same time last year.

October’s figure helped raise export value during the January-October period to nearly 108 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 15.2 percent, with FDI businesses making up 66 billion USD.

The ministry attributed the achievements to the sustained growth rate of industrial products, especially phones, computers and electronic components.

In October alone, the country recorded a trade deficit of 200 million USD, equivalent to 1.71 percent of the total export revenue.

During the first ten months of this year, the trade deficit was 187million USD, accounting for 0.17 percent of total export value.

Despite the seasonal change, the purchasing power still remains modest as people are tightening their belts in these difficult economic times, the ministry said.

As a result, total turnover from retail and services last month reached only 225.6 trillion VND (10.6 billion USD), up 0.7 percent against the previous month and 12.9 percent more than the same period last year.

The total figure in the January-October period exceeded 2,150 trillion VND, a year-on-year increase of 12.6 percent.-VNA