HANOI, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam spent over 193.8 billion U.S. dollars importing goods in the first 10 months of this year, up 11.8 percent on-year, making a trade surplus of 6.4 billion U.S. dollars, the General Statistics Office said on Monday.
Specifically, domestic sector posted import turnovers of 77.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 12 percent, and foreign-invested sector more than 116.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.97 percent.
In the January-October period, Vietnam's import turnovers of electronic products, computers and components climbed up 13.2 percent to 34.6 billion U.S. dollars; machines, equipment and spare parts declined 2 percent to 27.5 billion U.S. dollars; phones and components decreased 1.6 percent to 12.6 billion U.S. dollars; cloth surged 12.9 percent to 10.5 billion U.S. dollars; steel rose 10.6 percent to 8.3 billion U.S. dollars; plastic expanded 19.3 percent to 7.4 billion U.S. dollars; and oil and petrol products surged 20 percent to 6.8 billion U.S. dollars.
Regarding markets, China remained Vietnam's biggest import market with turnovers of 52.9 billion U.S. dollars in the 10-month period, up 12.4 percent, tailed by South Korea with 39.2 billion U.S. dollars, the ASEAN with 26 billion U.S. dollars, Japan with 15.5 billion U.S. dollars, the European Union with 11.2 billion U.S. dollars, and the United States with 10.6 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2017, Vietnam's total import turnovers stood at 211.1 billion U.S. dollars, and its export turnovers reached 214 billion U.S. dollars, creating a trade surplus of 2.9 billion U.S. dollars, according to the latest statistics released by the office.
