On October 17, MOFCOM Department of Foreign Trade made a statement on foreign trade situation of China in the first three quarters of 2018.
According to the statistics of the Custom House, China's total import and export value reached 22.28 trillion yuan in the first three quarters of 2018, with an increase of 9.9% year on year (similarly hereinafter). Among these, the export reached 11.86 trillion yuan, with an increase of 6.5%, and the import reached 10.42 trillion yuan, with an increase of 14.1%. The surplus was 1.44 trillion yuan, narrowing down by 28.3%. The foreign trade experienced rapid growth in the first three quarters with its structure continuously optimized and driving force conversed quickly. The quality and efficiency further improved, and the stable and upward trend further consolidated, which laid the foundation for improving the quality of foreign trade.
In terms of the international market, while consolidating the traditional market, the exports to emerging markets maintained its rapid growth and the international market was further optimized. Among them, the exports to the BRICS countries and the countries along the Belt and Road routes increased by 9.7% and 7.7% respectively, 3.2 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points higher than the average export growth rate respectively.
In terms of domestic regional layout, the export of the central and western regions were 1.95 trillion yuan, increasing by 13.0%, 6.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, with its proportion edging up 0.9 percentage points and reaching 16.5%. The export of eastern region was 9.91 trillion yuan, with an increase of 5.3%, accounting for 83.5%.
In terms of commodity structure, exports of mechanical and electronic products registered 6.91 trillion yuan, up 7.8%, with its proportion edging up 0.7 percentage points and reaching 58.3%. Among these, exports of integrated circuit, automobile and its chassis, and mobile phone and components grew by 22.1%, 16.2% and 10.7% respectively. The added value of the exports of mechanical and electronic products such as computer and its parts, integrated circuit, and electric motor and generator were further improved with their unit prices increasing by 9.6%, 12.2% and 9.5% respectively. The exports of seven kinds of labor intensive products such as clothes and toys were 2.29 trillion yuan, down 0.8%.
In terms of the main body of foreign trade operations, the exports of private enterprises reached 5.68 trillion yuan, up 9.6%, with its proportion up 1.4 percentage points and reaching 47.9%. The private enterprises continued to be the largest business entity regarding exports. The exports of state-owned enterprises reached 1.25 trillion yuan, up 7.0%. The exports of foreign-invested enterprises reached 4.93 trillion yuan, up 3.1%.
In terms of trade modes, the export of general trade reached 6.73 trillion yuan, up 10.9%, with its proportion edging up 2.3 percentage points and reaching 56.8%. The export of processing trade reached 3.75 trillion yuan, up 1.9%.
In terms of new foreign trade business patterns, the business environment of new foreign trade business patterns was constantly improved. After two consecutive years of high-speed growth, cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade continued their high-speed growth, becoming the new highlights of foreign trade growth. On July 24, the State Council approved the building of 22 new integrated experimental zones for cross-border e-commerce including Beijing. On September 28, we will launch the fourth group of market procurement trade pilots in six markets such as in Zhejiang together with related departments. This promotes the new business patterns in a larger scale, and helps give further play to the promotion role of the foreign trade transformation and upgrading.
From the perspective of import, China’s import increased by 14.1% and the contribution rate to import and export growth was 64.2% in the first three quarters, driven by favorable factors such as expanding opening up, rolling out policies and measures for the promotion of import expansion, and reducing import tariffs. This has become the main driving force for foreign trade growth this year. The import of mechanical and electrical products reached 4.72 trillion yuan, with an increase of 13.0%, driving the total import volume to increase by 6.0 percentage points. The imports of cosmetics, fruits and dried fruits, which are closely related to people's lives, increased by 75.1% and 30.2% respectively. The 10 kinds of commodities such as crude oil, natural gas and coal pulled up imports by 4.1 percentage points.
From the perspective of international comparison, China’s growth rates of import and export were higher than those of the main economic entities such as the US, Germany and Japan and their average rate, according to the latest import and export statistics of the main economic entities in January-August released by the WTO.
