The trade deficit in the first half of the year was at $685 million, a 10 percent rise over the same period last year, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO) on Friday.

Goods are handled at Cat Lai Port in HCM City.

During the first six months import value saw a year-on-year increase of 6.9 percent to $53.812 billion, while export value surged 22.2 percent to $53.127 billion, said Thuy.

The foreign direct investment (FDI) sector gained the highest export value at $32.65 billion, seeing an increase of 37.3 percent compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, the domestic sector saw a year-on-year rise of 4 percent to $20.47 billion.

Export value for telephones and components achieved the highest export growth rate of 129 percent for the first half, to $4.69 billion.

Other products gained high increases in export value of 30 percent to $685 million for cashew nuts, a 24.4 percent rise to $2.22 billion for wood and wooden products, a 12.5 percent increase to $3.83 billion for crude oil and a 8.7 percent rise to $6.76 billion for textiles and garments.

Meanwhile, the import value for the FDI sector increased by 26.1 percent to $27.98 billion in the first six months as the sector continued to witness high growth in production and exports. The domestic sector saw a fall in import value of 8.2 percent to $25.82 billion against the same period of last year.

Many products that rely on imports of materials for production saw falls in import value, by 34.1 percent to $1.35 billion for autos, 29.9 percent to $440 million for cotton, 13 percent to $1.22 billion for animal feed and 10 percent to $644 million for fertiliser.