Viet Nam posts second straight monthly trade surplus in October

Viet Nam recorded a trade surplus of 7.31 billion USD in October 2026, following a surplus of 1.3 billion USD in September, marking the second consecutive monthly surplus this year, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance.

The office's socio-economic report released on November 3 showed that total import-export turnover in October reached an estimated 122.03 billion USD, up 3.7% from the previous month and 47.4% year on year.

In the last 10 months, total trade turnover reached 1.01 trillion USD, up 32.3% year on year, exceeding the 1-trillion-USD mark for the first time and reaching a record high. Exports rose 27.5%, while imports increased 37.4%, resulting in a trade deficit of 12.07 billion USD.

Export earnings in October amounted to 64.67 billion USD, up 8.7% month on month and 51.4% year on year. Domestic businesses contributed 9.94 billion USD, while the foreign-invested sector, including crude oil, accounted for 54.73 billion USD, up 4.2% and 9.5%, respectively.

Cumulative exports in the January-October period surged 27.5% year on year to 499.24 billion USD, with domestic businesses contributing 93.93 billion USD, up 8.2%, and foreign-invested enterprises 405.31 billion USD, up 33%. The respective shares were 18.8% and 81.2%.

During the period, 37 export products generated over 1 billion USD each, accounting for 94.9% of total export value, including eight products exceeding 10 billion USD, which made up 73.4%.

Processing products dominated exports at 452.74 billion USD, or 90.7%, followed by agricultural and forestry products at 33.48 billion USD (6.7%), seafood at 10.36 billion USD (2.1%), and fuels and minerals at 2.66 billion USD (0.5%).

Meanwhile, imports in October totalled 57.36 billion USD, down 1.4% month on month but up 43.1% year on year.

For the first 10 months, imports rose 37.4% year on year to 511.31 billion USD. Production materials accounted for 481.03 billion USD, or 94.1%, while consumer goods made up the remaining 5.9%.

Viet Nam posted trade surpluses of 40.84 billion USD with the EU and 3.42 billion USD with Japan, up 26.8% and 110.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, it recorded deficits of 134.94 billion USD with China, 48.63 billion USD with the Republic of Korea and 16.93 billion USD with ASEAN.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to accelerate exports, diversify markets and improve compliance capacity, focusing on making better use of signed free trade agreements, expanding into new markets, and strengthening early warnings of trade defence cases, tariff barriers, green standards, traceability and rules of origin.

It will also support businesses in improving product quality, developing brands and ensuring supply chain transparency, while promoting official export channels, expanding agricultural quarantine agreements, investing in cold-chain logistics infrastructure, and standardising growing areas and packing facilities to meet partner markets' requirements.