HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s total trade turnover reached a record US$770.1 billion in the first eight months of 2026, up 28.7 per cent over the same period last year, updates from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed on September 3.

However, as imports grew faster than exports, Việt Nam ran a trade deficit of $20.5 billion over the eight-month period. Exports rose 22.4 per cent year-on-year to $374.8 billion, while imports jumped 35.3 per cent to $395.3 billion.

In August alone, trade value reached $109.7 billion, up 31.7 per cent from a year earlier but down a slight 0.1 per cent from July.

Exports in August rose 3.2 per cent from the previous month and 26 per cent year-on-year to $54.8 billion. Domestic firms accounted for $10.5 billion, up 2.2 per cent from July, while foreign-invested companies exported $44.3 billion in August, up 3.4 per cent.

In the first eight months, foreign-invested companies accounted for 80.1 per cent of total exports, with shipments worth $300.4 billion, up 26.9 per cent year-on-year. Domestic firms exported $74.5 billion, up 7.4 per cent.

Thirty-three export items generated more than $1 billion each from January through August, altogether accounting for 93.6 per cent of total export value. Of these, seven items had export turnover of more than $10 billion, together accounting for 70 per cent of the country’s total export value over the eight-month period.

Manufactured and processed goods generated $338 billion, or 90.2 per cent of the total export value. Agricultural and forestry products accounted for $26.7 billion, seafood for $8 billion and fuels and minerals for $2.2 billion.

Imports fell 3.1 per cent month-on-month in August, but rose 37.9 per cent from a year earlier to $54.9 billion. Imports by domestic firms fell 7.1 per cent from July to $12.8 billion, while those by foreign-invested companies declined 1.8 per cent to $42.1 billion.

From January to August, imports by foreign-invested companies rose 40.1 per cent year-on-year to $290.2 billion, while those from domestic firms increased 23.7 per cent to $105 billion.

Việt Nam mainly imported production inputs including machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts, raw materials and fuels, which accounted for 94.1 per cent of total import value, or $372 billion. Consumer goods accounted for 5.9 per cent of imports, worth $23.3 billion.

The US was Việt Nam’s largest export market in the first eight months, with revenue of $122 billion, while China remained the country’s biggest source of imports, with turnover of $161.9 billion.

NSO Director Nguyễn Thị Hương said that to achieve sustainable trade balance, further focus must be on strengthening measures to promote exports, including trade promotion, diversification of supply and production chains and export markets, as well as improvements in product quality.

She also urged Việt Nam to make greater use of existing free trade agreements and expand exports while tapping new and high-potential destinations, including Halal markets, Latin America and Africa.

Efforts to support enterprises to meet new export market standards, assist them in anti-dumping cases and improve access to financing must also be accelerated, together with encouraging the use of advanced technologies to raise product quality and value, Hương said. — VNS