MOFCOM optimistic about foreign trade growth
February 19, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
China has confidence in its ability to maintain stable trade growth in 2019 thanks to a raft of positive factors. “Looking ahead, despite the complex environment, we still see many favorable factors for the stable development of foreign trade in 2019,” Chu Shijia, Director of the Comprehensive Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), told a conference. The gradual recovery of the global economy, China’s opening-up efforts and pro-trade policies, accelerating industrial upgrading and improving corporate vitality will lend strong steam to the country’s trade growth this year, Chu said.
China’s foreign trade in goods surged faster than expected to a record high last year, totaling USD4.6 trillion, up 12.6% year-on-year, faster than that of major trading nations. It made China the world’s largest trader in goods. MOFCOM noted growing trade with Belt and Road countries, more high-end exports and accelerating imports growth. Trade with the countries along the Belt and Road rose to 27.4% of the total. The private sector accounted for 48% of total exports, making it the largest single source of exports. China has continued to push foreign trade growth, setting up 22 new comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce.
According to World Trade Organization (WTO) statistics, China’s share of global imports increased by 0.7 percentage points to 10.9% in the first three quarters of 2018, and the country’s contribution to global import growth was 16.8%. In particular, last year’s inaugural China International Import Expo provided new opportunities for countries and regions around the world to expand exports to China and injected new impetus into world economic growth.
Global direct investment fell 19% in 2018 from a year earlier, but increased 3% in China to USD134.97 billion. Foreign investors are also increasing their investment in China’s commercial real estate market, surpassing CNY70 billion, up over 50% year-on-year, according to CBRE Group, a leading global commercial real estate service. Foreign investment accounted for about 60% of Shanghai’s major property deals in the fourth quarter of 2018, the Shanghai Daily reports.
China’s exports and imports both rose at a faster-than-expected rate in January, up 8.7% from a year earlier to CNY2.73 trillion. Exports rose 13.9% year-on-year to CNY1.5 trillion, while imports grew 2.9% to CNY1.23 trillion. The trade surplus expanded 1.2 times to CNY271.16 billion. The increase in exports was significantly higher than analyst forecasts, partly driven by front-loading by exporters before the Spring Festival, which fell at the beginning of February as compared with the end of February last year. In terms of regions, China’s trade with the European Union, ASEAN countries and Japan increased 17.6%, 7.8% and 6.5%. Trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose 11.5%.
Investment into China from the United States rose by 124.6% in January, with the hi-tech industry witnessing the most significant increase, from the Netherlands by 95.6%, the United Kingdom by 13.7% and Hong Kong by 6.5%.
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