The GSO report said during this period, the country earned US$78.03 billion from exports, an increase of 34.6 percent from a year earlier and three times higher than the annual growth target set by the Government.

The office’s Trade Department Head Le Minh Thuy attributed the increasing export value to the prices of some products which were higher than last year such as pepper, rubber and cassava.

Garment products topped the list of 27 main exports, with a turnover of US$11.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.4 percent.

However, pepper, cassava and cassava-based exports gained the highest growth. In detail, pepper products increased by 93.9 percent to earn US$700 million. Meanwhile, cassava and cassava-based exports fetched US$823 million, up 93.4 percent.

The US remains Vietnam’s biggest partner, followed by the EU, Southeast Asia, China and Japan.

In terms of imports, the country spent US$86.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent. Goods serving production such as petrol, chemicals and steel accounted for a large portion of that.

Thuy explained that soaring prices had in part, pushed up the import turnover in the first 10 months.

Petrol imports were estimated at US$8.6 billion, steel and iron imports at US$5.7 billion and fertilizer imports at US$1.4 billion.

Thuy predicted that the trade deficit would continue to increase in the last two months of this year.

In October alone, the national trade deficit dropped by nearly 50 percent month on month, hitting just US$800 million. This month, the country earned US$8.3 billion from exports, an increase of 4.5 percent over September.

Meanwhile, it spent US$9.1 billion on imports, down 3.7 percent.