According to the latest customs statistics, in the first three quarters of this year, China’s total import and export value was 30.8 trillion yuan, a slight decrease of 0.2% year-on-year. Among them, the export was 17.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.6%; Imports reached 13.2 trillion yuan, down 1.2% year-on-year. At the press conference held by the State Council Office on the 13th, Lu Daliang, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, said that under the general environment of unstable world economic recovery, China’s foreign trade withstood the pressure, and its scale and excellent structure continued to advance, and positive factors continued to accumulate.
From the quarterly data, imports and exports rose quarter by quarter, with 9.72 trillion yuan, 10.29 trillion yuan and 10.79 trillion yuan in the first, second and third quarters respectively. According to the monthly data, the import and export in September was 3.74 trillion yuan, an increase of two consecutive months from the previous month, and the scale reached a new high in a single month in the year. "China’s complete industrial system, sufficient supply capacity and balanced import and export structure are important fundamental advantages of China’s foreign trade." Ni Yueju, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that.
Specifically, the "stable" foundation for the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade is more solid. First, the scale is stable. In the second and third quarters, both imports and exports were above 10 trillion yuan, maintaining a historical high level; Second, the main body is stable. In the first three quarters, the number of foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance in China increased to 597,000, of which the import and export value of enterprises that have been active since 2020 accounted for nearly 80% of the whole; Third, the share is stable. According to the preliminary calculation of the customs, the international market share of China’s exports in the first seven months was basically the same as that of the same period last year.
At the same time of "stability", the current foreign trade operation also shows "good" positive changes: on the one hand, private enterprises have good vitality. In the first three quarters, the monthly import and export growth rate of private enterprises was higher than that of the whole. The export proportion of private enterprises’ own brand products increased by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year to 22.7%, and the brand awareness in the fields of automobiles, construction machinery and consumer electronics was further enhanced. On the other hand, the market potential is good. In the first three quarters, China’s import and export to emerging markets such as Central Asia, Africa and Latin America increased by 33.7%, 6.7% and 5.1% respectively, both higher than the overall growth rate of China’s foreign trade; Recently, China’s import and export to traditional markets such as the European Union and the United States have also improved significantly.
In addition, "the 21 pilot free trade zones across the country have taken the initiative to strengthen collaborative innovation, explore and promote coordinated development, amplify the comprehensive effect of reform, and achieved positive results, which has effectively promoted the development of foreign trade throughout the country." Ni Yueju analyzed. The data shows that in the first three quarters, the import and export of 21 pilot free trade zones in China was 5.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.6%, accounting for 18.3% of China’s total foreign trade.
When talking about the trend of China’s foreign trade in the next stage, Lu Daliang said, "There are still many favorable factors to support it." From the perspective of domestic economic operation, the manufacturing PMI rebounded for four consecutive months. In August, the growth rate of industrial added value and total retail sales of social consumer goods accelerated by 0.8 and 2.1 percentage points respectively compared with the previous month, and the overall economy rebounded. In terms of industries, the market share, international competitiveness and brand influence of advantageous export industries such as ships, construction machinery and household appliances have been further improved. At the same time, the import and export of consumer electronics industry showed a recovery momentum. The import and export of integrated circuits continued to rise in August and September, and the year-on-year decline in mobile phone and computer exports in September was significantly narrowed. (Economic Daily reporter Feng Qiyu)