Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.26 billion USD in the first seven months of this year, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the total export revenue, Nhan Dan (People) online newspaper reported, citing statistics released by the General Statistics Office.

The statistics unveiled that the nation's total export revenue reached 83.5 billion USD between January-July of this year, up 14.1 percent compared to the same period in 2013.

Of which, the domestic sector contributed 27.7 billion USD and the foreign direct investment sector contributed 55.8 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 12.2 percent and 15 percent respectively.

In the seven-month period, many major commodities saw higher export turnover against the corresponding period last year, including telephones and components (up 13.9 percent), garments and textiles (up 19.4 percent), footwear (up 21.8 percent), aquatic products (up 25.5 percent), pepper (up 46.1 percent) and others.

However, there were several agricultural products and materials that suffered a decline in both volume and value.

The country exported 3.9 million tonnes of rice worth 1.7 billion USD in the first seven months of this year, down 8 percent in volume and 4.7 percent in value from last year.

The volume of rubber exported also dropped by 9.5 percent with a 32 percent fall in value. Notably, the export volume and value of coal reduced sharply by 37.6 percent and 33.9 percent respectively.

The US was Vietnam's largest export market in the period, followed by the EU, ASEAN, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

China remained Vietnam's largest import market in the period and Vietnam posted a trade deficit of 14.8 billion USD with China, a year-on-year increase of 14.4 percent.

Vietnam gained a 1.32 billion USD trade surplus in the six-month period. The country is expected to enjoy a trade surplus of 500 million USD this year, with its total export turnover at 146 billion USD and import turnover at 145.5 billion USD.-VNA