Vietnam was estimated to enjoy a trade surplus of more than 1.08 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, the General Department of Vietnam Customs noted on April 17.

The country's exports in the period reached 33.54 billion USD, posting a year-on-year increase of 14.8 percent. Meanwhile, the country spent a total of 32.45 billion USD to import goods and services, resulting in a rise of 12.8 percent over the same period last year.

The foreign invested sector continued to play a key role in the country's import-export turnover in Q1.The sector shipped 20.74 billion USD worth of goods, up 18.7 percent from the previous year, accounting for 61.8 percent of the country's total export value.

The total imports were recorded at 18.86 billion USD, up 16.5 percent in comparison to the corresponding period last year, constituting 58.1 percent of the country's import values, the data revealed.

During the first quarter, the country chiefly exported cell phones and accessories worth 5.47 billion USD (up 23.8 percent), garment and textile worth 4.44 billion USD (up 19.4 percent), computers, electronic products, and spare parts worth 2.2 billion USD (down 6.5 percent), footwear 2.12 billion USD (up 24 percent), transport equipment and spare parts 1.67 billion USD (up 29.5 per cent), aquatic products 1.62 billion USD (up 35 percent), and crude oil worth 1.6 billion USD (down 13.5 percent).

In the first quarter, the country imported machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts worth 4.85 billion USD (up 28 percent), computers, electronic products, and spare parts worth 4.2 billion USD (up 2 percent), cell phones and accessories 2.06 billion USD (up 21.2 percent), petroleum 1.94 billion USD (up 16.6 percent), clothes 1.93 billion USD (up 18.4 percent), and steel and iron worth 1.5 billion USD (down 3.7 percent).-VNA