China's foreign trade shows strong resilience (new economic orientation · mid year data observation), with a total value of | imports and exports | economy
According to customs statistics, the total import and export value of China's goods trade in the first half of the year was 20.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.1%. Among them, exports reached 11.46 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%.
In the first half of the year, China's foreign trade import and export scale exceeded 20 trillion yuan for the first time in history. Among them, the first and second quarters reached 9.76 trillion yuan and 10.34 trillion yuan respectively, achieving positive growth year-on-year. From a month on month perspective, import and export in the second quarter increased by 6% compared to the first quarter, and both May and June saw a month on month increase of 1.2%.
On July 13, Lv Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Department of Statistics and Analysis, stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that in the first half of the year, facing a complex and severe external environment, China adhered to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, steadily promoted high-quality development, and overall economic performance improved. The import and export of foreign trade remained stable and improved in quality, meeting expectations. In the first half of the year, China's foreign trade import and export scale achieved new breakthroughs and structural optimization, demonstrating strong resilience.
Lv Daliang stated that China's foreign trade is currently facing pressure, ups and downs, and challenges, but the road ahead is long and the road ahead is approaching.
Resist pressure, stabilize the scale of foreign trade imports and exports, and improve quality
"In the first half of the year, the global economic recovery was weak, and the policy contraction spillover effects of major developed economies were evident. There were many unstable, uncertain, and unpredictable factors in the international market. China's foreign trade imports and exports withstood the pressure, stabilized the scale, and improved the quality, and the development of foreign trade met expectations," said Lv Daliang.
The vitality of foreign trade is strengthening. In the first half of the year, there were 540000 foreign trade enterprises in China with import and export performance, an increase of 6.9% year-on-year. Among them, private enterprises, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises and full of vitality, continue to expand, with a year-on-year increase of 8.3%, and the activity of foreign trade operators has significantly increased. Private enterprises are also the main force driving stable growth in foreign trade. In the first half of the year, the import and export growth rate was 6.8 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, and the proportion of scale to the total import and export value increased to 52.7%, driving the overall growth by 4.4 percentage points.
The foreign trade structure is more optimized. From the perspective of trade methods, the growth rate of general trade imports and exports with longer industrial chains and higher added value is faster than the overall growth rate, accounting for 1.2 percentage points of the total import and export value, reaching 65.5%. The ability for independent trade development is steadily increasing. From the perspective of regional layout, the pace of opening up and development in the central and western regions and the northeast provinces has accelerated. In the first half of the year, imports and exports increased by 2.8% and 4.5% respectively, which were 0.7 and 2.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate. The total proportion of imports and exports in China has increased to 21%, and regional development is becoming more balanced.
The convergence of foreign trade momentum. Under the pressure of foreign trade, China is vigorously exploring emerging markets, building high-level open platforms, cultivating and strengthening advantageous industries, and continuously gathering new momentum for foreign trade. In the first half of the year, the growth rate of China's import and export to countries along the "the Belt and Road" was close to double digits, accounting for 34.3% of the total import and export value; During the same period, emerging markets such as Latin America and Africa saw growth of 7% and 10.5% respectively, making the international market more diversified. The import and export of the Free Trade Pilot Zone and Hainan Free Trade Port increased by 8.6% and 26.4% respectively, and the role of an open platform has played a significant role. The total export growth of the "new three types" products, namely electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells, increased by 61.6%, driving an overall export growth of 1.8 percentage points. The green industry has abundant momentum.
Optimize the environment and stimulate the development momentum of various business entities
"The foundation is to promote stability and improve quality in import and export, and stabilize the main body of foreign trade operations," said Lv Daliang. Since the beginning of this year, the General Administration of Customs has continued to implement the measures to stabilize foreign trade that were already introduced last year. Last month, it launched 16 measures to optimize the business environment for customs, helping to promote the development of foreign trade.
According to preliminary customs statistics, in the first half of the year, the advantages and potential of cross-border e-commerce in "buying the world and selling the world" continued to be released, with imports and exports reaching 1.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Among them, exports amounted to 821 billion yuan, an increase of 19.9%, and imports amounted to 276 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7%, continuing to maintain a good development momentum and effectively helping China's foreign trade to stabilize its scale and structure.
In the first half of the year, private enterprises continued to maintain their position as the main force in foreign trade——
The number of enterprises and trade scale have steadily increased, playing a significant role in stabilizing the overall market. In the first half of the year, the import and export of private enterprises reached 10.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.9%, driving China's foreign trade growth by 4.4 percentage points; The import and export value of private enterprises in 25 provinces has maintained growth.
Significant achievements have been made in innovative development, and high-quality exports have made outstanding contributions. In the first half of the year, private enterprises exported high-tech products worth 1.24 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%, accounting for an increase of 5.7 percentage points in China's exports of similar products, reaching 44.7%. At the same time, private enterprises are the main driving force for the growth of China's "new three types" product exports, with a total export of 346.3 billion yuan, an increase of 64.6%, and a contribution rate of 66.8% to the growth of similar product exports.
The import of livelihood and resource products has grown rapidly, highlighting the role of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices. In the first half of the year, the import value of agricultural products by private enterprises increased by 21.9%, which is 5.7 percentage points higher than the import growth rate of similar products in China. During the same period, the import value of pharmaceutical materials and drugs increased by 24.8%, which is 4.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of similar product imports.
Expanding the market and continuously expanding the "circle of friends" for foreign trade
Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade "circle of friends" has been continuously expanding, and market diversification has further expanded. In the first half of the year, China's import and export scale to ASEAN, Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia increased by 5.4%, 7%, 10.5%, and 35.6% year-on-year, respectively, all higher than the overall import and export growth rate of the same period.
In the first half of the year, the import and export of China and the countries along the "the Belt and Road" reached 6.89 trillion yuan, up 9.8% year on year, 7.7 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of foreign trade. Industrial cooperation is becoming closer. In the first half of the year, China's exports of auto parts, lithium batteries, auto data processing equipment and other intermediate products to countries along the "the Belt and Road" increased by 39.3%, 34.3% and 28.9% respectively. During the same period, imports of energy products and agricultural products from countries along the route also increased by 5.7% and 17.9%, respectively.
The interconnection effect is highlighted. In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports to countries along the route increased by 23.8% through railway transportation, which is 14 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of countries along the route, maintaining double-digit growth for 12 consecutive months; The import and export of countries along the route increased by 63.6% through road transportation, which is 53.8 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of countries along the route. The growth rate has exceeded 30% for five consecutive months.
The performance of the central and western regions is even more impressive. In the first half of the year, the import and export of the central and western regions to countries along the "the Belt and Road" increased by 23.2%, accounting for 21.2% of the total import and export value of China and countries along the "Belt and Road" in the same period, up 2.3 percentage points year on year. Among them, the import and export growth rates of Guangxi, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other three autonomous regions to countries along the route all exceeded 50%.
In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports to ASEAN amounted to 3.08 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, accounting for 15.3% of China's total import and export value during the same period, an increase of 0.5 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among them, China's imports of agricultural products from ASEAN amounted to 125.08 billion yuan, an increase of 7.5%, which is 6.4 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate of China's imports from ASEAN. The import performance of some characteristic agricultural products was impressive, with fruit imports reaching 40.54 billion yuan, an increase of 24.1%. Fresh durian and pineapple increased by 65% and 24.1% respectively; Palm oil imports reached 10.91 billion yuan, an increase of 120.5%.
In the first half of the year, China's total imports and exports to the other 14 members of RCEP amounted to 6.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%, contributing more than 20% to China's foreign trade growth.
Regional industrial chain cooperation is becoming closer. The potential of the RCEP market is gradually being released, which will effectively promote the free flow of production factors within the region, gradually form a more prosperous regional integrated market, and open up new space for enterprises to expand international industrial cooperation and economic and trade exchanges. In the first half of the year, China's exports of intermediate products to other RCEP members amounted to 1.72 trillion yuan, accounting for more than half of China's exports to other RCEP members, reaching 54.4%.
Journalist's Notes
This "transcript" meets expectations and is hard won
In the first half of this year, facing a complex and severe external environment, China's foreign trade imports and exports remained stable and improved in quality. The scale of imports and exports exceeded 20 trillion yuan for the first time in the same period in history, which is in line with expectations and hard won.
The workers skillfully assemble membranes, LCD panels, structural components, etc. together and process them into LCD display modules - this is a busy scene in the production workshop of a technology-based private enterprise in Shenzhen. It is reported that this batch of products is assembled in the morning and can arrive at the port for direct loading in the afternoon, smoothly boarding the cargo ship to Malaysia. Nowadays, private enterprises have become stabilizers of foreign trade: in the first half of the year, the number of private enterprises with import and export performance increased by 8.3% year-on-year, reaching 459000, accounting for 85.1% of enterprises with import and export performance during the same period.
The increase in the number of business entities provides strong support for imports and exports. Equally gratifying is the data showing that China's foreign trade has accelerated the transformation of new and old driving forces, with a good momentum. In the first half of the year, the total export of "new three types" products such as electric passenger vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar cells increased by 61.6%, driving the overall export growth by 1.8 percentage points.
If the road is obstructed and long, then it will come. At present, the external environment is complex and severe, and foreign trade does have pressure, fluctuations, and challenges. However, the long-term fundamentals of China's economy have not changed. Coupled with a good industrial system and complete production capacity, foreign trade development has sufficient resilience and room for maneuver. China is steadfastly promoting high-level opening-up to the outside world, actively promoting international economic and trade cooperation, and the comprehensive effects of a series of stable foreign trade policies and measures continue to emerge.
We believe that as the economy continues to improve and practical and effective measures continue to be implemented, the vitality of foreign trade operators will be further enhanced, and the goal of promoting stability and improving quality through import and export will definitely be achieved.
