Viet Nam racked up a trade surplus of US$20.19 billion during the first eight months of the year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported Tuesday.

In August, trade between Viet Nam and the rest of the world was estimated at US$60.92 billion, up 6.7 percent over the previous month, but down 7.9 percent over the same period from last year.

In January-August period, total import and export turnover of goods stood at US$435.23 billion, down 13.1 percent on-year, of which export value decreased by 10 percent to US$227.71 billion and imports fell by 16.2 percent to US$207.52 billion.

The domestic economic sector raked in US$59.92 billion, representing a drop of 9.2 percent and accounting for 26.3 percent of the country's total export turnover.

Meanwhile, the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector earned a turnover of US$167.79 billion, representing a fall of 10.3 percent and accounting for 73.7 percent of total export turnover.

During the reviewed period, the U.S. remained the largest importer of Vietnamese goods with US$62.3 billion while China maintained its position as the biggest supplier of goods to Viet Nam with US$68.1 billion. 

The Southeast Asian nation enjoyed a trade surplus with the U.S. (US$53 billion), the EU (US$19.6 billion) and Japan (US$1.15 billion) while reporting a trade deficit with China (US$32.2 billion), South Korea (US$17.3 billion) and ASEAN (US$5.2 billion).