China's foreign trade edges up 5.2% in first 10 months

China's total goods imports and exports grew by 5.2 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months this year to reach 36.02 trillion yuan ($5 trillion), extending stable growth and displaying consistent structural improvement, official data showed on Thursday.

According to the General Administration of Customs (GAC), exports rose 6.7 percent year-on-year to 20.8 trillion yuan, while imports climbed 3.2 percent year-on-year to 15.22 trillion yuan in the first 10 months.

Thanks to a package of the government’s pro-growth policies, the country’s goods trade rose by 4.6 percent year-on-year in October alone in yuan-denominated terms, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from September, according to the GAC.

China’s foreign trade has maintained stable growth this year, with the scale witnessing further expansion and structure constantly being improved. “The annual foreign trade goal of stable volume growth and quality improvement is on track to be met,” said Lü Daliang, a GAC spokesperson on Thursday.

Throughout the period, ASEAN remained China’s top trading partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching 5.67 trillion yuan, up 8.8 percent from a year ago, accounting for 15.7 percent of the country’s total foreign trade, followed by the EU with a trade volume at 4.64 trillion yuan, and the US at 4.01 trillion yuan.

Between January and October, the bilateral trade between China and the US inched up by 4.4 percent year-on-year to reach 4.01 trillion yuan, the GAC data showed. Over the period, China’s exports to the US grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to reach 3.04 trillion yuan, while imports up by 2.9 percent to reach 969.48 billion yuan.

During the first 10 months, China’s trade with partner countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 16.94 trillion yuan, marking a 6.2 percent year-on-year increase.