On March 17th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the operation of the national economy in January and February 2025. Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics and director of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the National Economy, introduced at the meeting that in the complex and changing international environment, people are more concerned about the development of foreign trade. Since the beginning of this year, the world economy has been recovering slowly, trade restrictions have been increasing, and global economic and trade growth is facing more challenges. In the complex external environment, due to the impact of incomparable factors such as reduced working days, China's imports and exports of goods have slightly decreased. However, excluding incomparable factors, China's imports and exports have maintained stable growth
Fu Linghui stated that in the first two months, the total import and export volume of goods in China decreased by 1.2% year-on-year. According to customs calculations, excluding incomparable factors, the import and export volume increased by 1.7%. Among them, exports continued to grow, and the export of key products such as electromechanical products showed good growth, demonstrating the strong international competitiveness and foreign trade resilience of China's products in a complex and severe international environment. This is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
From the perspective of major trading partners, imports and exports to ASEAN and the United States have maintained growth. In recent years, with the deepening implementation of the RCEP agreement, trade between China and ASEAN countries has maintained a good trend. From this year's situation, trade between China and ASEAN has continued to grow. In the first two months, the import and export volume between China and ASEAN increased by 4% year-on-year. Despite facing constraints such as increased tariffs, the strong complementarity of China US trade continues to emerge, and goods trade continues to grow. In the first two months, China's import and export volume with the United States increased by 3.5% year-on-year.
Secondly, from the perspective of trade operators, the import and export of private enterprises continue to grow. In recent years, private enterprises in China have actively expanded their international markets and become the main force in promoting foreign trade growth. From this year's situation, private enterprises have actively responded to the complex changes in the international market, adjusted and explored new areas of foreign trade, and the results are also showing. In the first two months, the import and export of private enterprises increased by 2% year-on-year, which is better than the overall foreign trade situation.
Thirdly, in terms of export commodities, the export growth of mechanical and electrical products is relatively good. With the upgrading and development of China's industries, the competitiveness of the electromechanical product market continues to increase, and the export of integrated circuits, automobiles, and other products continues to grow. In the first two months, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 5.4% year-on-year. Among them, the export value of automatic data processing equipment and components increased by 11.7%, the export value of integrated circuits increased by 13.2%, and the export value of automobiles increased by 3.7%.
Fu Linghui pointed out that in terms of future development, China's foreign trade scale is large and the foundation is stable. It is the world's largest country in goods trade and the second largest country in service trade. The diversified and stable economic and trade relations continue to expand, and it has become a major trading partner of more than 150 countries, with vast space for foreign trade development. At the same time, China's industrial system is complete and has strong supporting capabilities. "Made in China" is increasingly recognized by the world, and foreign trade enterprises actively participate in international market division of labor and cooperation. New growth points in foreign trade such as green trade and digital trade continue to emerge, which will support the development of China's foreign trade.
In the next stage, although the international environment is becoming more complex and severe, the general trend of international cooperation and win-win will not change. China will firmly expand its opening-up to the outside world, and its industrial system is complete and innovation capabilities are gradually improving. The stable development of foreign trade has the foundation and conditions, which will also create new opportunities for global economic and trade development, "said Fu Linghui.
(Source: The Paper News)
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