Guangzhou (JLC), June 7, 2023--China's total imports and exports grew by 4.7% year on year to 16.77 trillion yuan in the first five months of 2023, official data showed on Wednesday.
The country’s exports gained 8.1% to 9.62 trillion yuan and its imports rose by 0.5% to 7.15 trillion yuan in the five months, according to data from the General Administration of Customs of the PRC (GACC).
The country’s trade surplus surged by 38% year on year to 2.47 trillion yuan.
By trade method, China’s ordinary foreign trade grew 7% to 11 trillion yuan and accounted for 65.6% of the total, an increase of 1.4 percentage points from the same period of time in 2022, the GACC data shows. In contrast, processing trade declined by 9.3% to 2.99 trillion yuan and accounted for 17.8%.
The country recorded growth in trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) in January-May and drops in trade with the Unites States and Japan. Its trade with ASEAN, China’s largest trading partner in the five months, surged by 9.9% to 2.59 trillion yuan and that with EU, China’s second largest trading partner in the period of time, gained 3.6% to 2.28 trillion yuan, the GACC data shows. In contrast, its trade with the United States fell by 5.5% to 1.89 trillion yuan and that with Japan slipped by 3.5% to 902.66 billion yuan.
In U.S. dollar terms, China’s total foreign trade came in at 2.44 trillion U.S. dollars in the five months, down 2.8% from the corresponding months in 2022, the GACC data indicates. Its exports inched up by 0.3% to 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, while its imports fell by 6.7% to 1.04 trillion U.S. dollars. As a result, its trade surplus soared by 27.8% to 359.48 billion U.S. dollars, the data shows.
In May alone, China’s foreign trade increased 0.5% year on year, with exports down 0.8% to 1.95 trilliion yuan but imports up 2.3% to 1.50 trillion yuan, the data says. In U.S. dollars terms, however, the country’s foreign trade dropped by 6.2% to 501.19 billion U.S. dollars in May, with exports down 7.5% to 283.5 billion U.S. dollars and imports down 4.5% to 217.69 billion U.S. dollars.
