Vietnam spent 14.48 billion U.S. dollars on importing from China in the first 11 months last year, almost the same figure for the corresponding period of 2008, said the information center of Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade on Monday.

Last November, Vietnam's import turnover from the Chinese market stood at 1.56 billion U.S. dollars, down 1.55 percent month- on-month.

In the first 11 months of 2009, Vietnamese importers narrowed their demands for a large number of China's products including cloth, iron and steel, fertilizer, chemicals, pesticide, automobiles, motorbike, and paper, said the center.

However, Vietnam saw a year-on-year increase in import turnover of such products as machines, equipment and spare parts, electronic products, oil and pharmaceuticals from China during the same period.

Machines, equipment and spare parts topped the Vietnam's import items from the Chinese market from January to November last year with the share of 24.71 percent. Vietnam paid 3.58 billion U.S. dollars to purchase machines, equipment and spare parts from this market, up ten percent year-on-year.

Vietnam's import turnover of cloth, the country's second largest import item from China, registered a slight decline of 1.2 percent year-on-year to 1.41 billion U.S. dollars, said the center.

Cloth was followed by electronic products and oil with the import turnover of 1.29 billion U.S. dollars and 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

China has been the Vietnam's largest import market in recent years. Vietnam spent 15.4 billion U.S. dollars on buying Chinese goods in 2008, a climb of 23.2 percent over a year earlier, according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.