According to newly-released customs statistics, in the first seven months of this year, China's foreign trade volume reached 15.46 trillion yuan ($2.32 trillion), up 18.5 percent year-on-year. In particular, foreign trade with the European Union, the U.S., Japan and ASEAN increased.
In the first seven months, foreign trade with the European Union totaled 2.33 trillion yuan, up 17.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.1 percent of the total volume, the customs data showed Tuesday.
In the same period, foreign trade with the United States reached 2.18 trillion yuan, a rise of 20.6 percent year-on-year, while foreign trade with ASEAN increased to 1.9 trillion yuan by 20.9 percent yearly. In particular, foreign trade with Japan reached 1.15 trillion yuan, up 16.9 percent yearly, the customs data also shows. Private enterprises took a larger share of foreign trade. Trade of private enterprises grew 19.9 percent to 5.95 trillion yuan, accounting for 38.5 percent of the country's total foreign trade volume, which is 0.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year, according to the customs statistics.
Both China's import and export growths slowed down.
In July, China's export growth in July (in yuan terms) was 11.2 percent. It was expected to be 14.8 percent and the previous value was17.3 percent. China's July import growth (in yuan terms) was 14.7 percent. It was expected to be 22.6 percent and the previous value was 23.1 percent, the customs data also notes.
Despite some slowdown in trade growth momentum in July, strong expansion in Chinese exports and imports is still predicted for the rest of the year.
With imports in yuan terms still rising, the data also shows that domestic demand is still robust. The latest economic data, which includes Q2 GDP, construction spending and retail sales, confirms that underlying growth in the Chinese economy remains strong, Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific Chief Economist for IHS Markit, commented Tuesday.
