Of this, export value increased by 16 percent on year to US$348.74 billion while imports totaled US$331.92 billion, a year-on-year rise of 18.8 percent.

The trade surplus stood at US$16.82 billion, reported the General Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance.

In September alone, export turnover reached US$42.67 billion, a slight decrease of 1.7 percent compared to August. The foreign-invested sector remained dominant, with US$34.01 billion in export value, down 0.6 percent.

During January-September, 32 items recorded an export turnover of over US$1 billion each, with seven items surpassing the US$10 billion mark.

By category, processed industrial goods overwhelmingly led exports, generating US$309.03 billion, or 88.6 percent of the total export turnover.

In terms of markets, the U.S. remained Viet Nam's largest export destination, with turnover reaching US$112.8 billion and a trade surplus of US$99.1 billion. Conversely, Viet Nam posted trade deficit of US$84.8 billion with China, US$23 billion with South Korea, and US$10.6 billion with ASEAN./.