Despite the four-fold increase in export value against the National Assembly's previous prediction, Vietnam 's trade deficit still totalled 12.4 billion USD this year, accounting for 17.3 percent of the country's total export revenue, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

This year's trade deficit was marginally lower than 2009's figure of 12.85 billion USD, the GSO announced.

Head of the GSO's Trade Department Le Minh Thuy blamed this unsatisfactory result on the country's increasing import volume, totalling 84 billion USD by the year-end as global goods prices continued rising.

The import turnover of foreign-invested sector remained very high this year at about 36.5 billion USD, a yearly increase of 39.9 percent, while the State-owned sector imported only 526 million USD worth of products, up 8.3 percent year-on-year.

Import turnover exceeded 1 billion USD in fabrics, electronics and computer components, plastics, footwear, chemicals and wood.

China continued to be the Vietnam 's largest exporter this year, supplying over 17.86 billion USD worth of goods, accounting for 24.9 percent of the country's total import value in 2010, the GSO said.

Global prices rose 10.6 percent, which had a significant effect on exports, which grew 25.5 percent to 71.6 billion USD.

Garments and textiles for the first time posted an annual turnover of 11 billion USD, putting the sector first in the list of 26 major export goods, while seafood and footwear overtook crude oil as the top three items with the highest turnover.

Crude oil export turnover decreased by 20 percent to 5 billion USD this year.

The trade deficit will increase to as much as 14 billion USD next year, according to forecasts from the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Economic Services Department.

Exports next year, excluding crude oil, are expected to total 78 billion USD – an increase of 10 percent over the current year.

Imports are projected to jump by 11 percent in 2011 to about 92 billion USD, with foreign-invested firms responsible for 41.5 billion USD for their imports, 15.3 percent higher than this year./.