Vietnam was estimated to enjoy a trade surplus of 700 million USD in the first four months of this year, according to data from the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The country shipped 45.74 billion USD worth of goods during this period, making a year-on-year increase of 16.9 percent, while it spent 45.05 billion USD to import goods and services, posting an increase of 13.7 percent over the same period last year.

The country's key export items in the period included mobile phones and accessories (7.6 billion USD); garments and textiles (5.94 billion USD); and electronic products, computers and spare-parts (2.94 billion USD).

Its key imported products in this period were machinery and spare-parts (6.7 billion USD); electronic products, computers and spare-parts (5.8 billion USD); petroleum (2.6 billion USD); and clothes (2.75 billion USD).

In April alone, the country's export turnover was posted at 12.2 billion USD. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) sector continued to top exports last month. The sector's exports were worth 8.02 billion USD, accounting for 66 percent of the country's total export values in the month.

Meanwhile, the country’s import values in April were estimated at 12.6 billion USD. Of which, imports of the FDI sector were worth 7.4 billion USD, accounting for 59 percent of the country's total import turnovers. The country saw a trade deficit of 400 million USD in April.

Vietnam's export turnover to the US posted a 25.6 percent year-on-year increase in the first quarter, while imports from the US were up 22.4 percent, according to figures from the General Department of Customs.

Export turnover was 6.15 billion USD, while import value was 1.61 billion USD.

Textile and garment exports continued to be the highest earner, while phones and component turnover increased six-fold over the same period last year.-VNA