China's foreign trade rises 5.7% in first four months

China's foreign trade sector exhibited resilience in the first four months of 2024, with the total goods trade registering a 5.7 percent year-on-year increase in yuan terms, according to official statistics released on Thursday.

China's total goods trade surged to 13.81 trillion yuan ($2.16 trillion) during this period, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC). Exports rose to 7.81 trillion yuan, up 4.9 percent, while imports reached 6 trillion yuan, reflecting a robust 6.8 percent increase.

"The total volume of foreign trade has maintained rapid growth, with evident structural optimization," Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the Economic Policy Commission at the China Association of Policy Science, told CMG on Thursday.

General trade imports and exports have increased, with processing trade imports and exports growth turning from negative to positive, showed the GAC data, indicating an accelerated transformation in the country's foreign trade development mode.

Official data indicated that in the first four months of this year, China's general trade imports and exports reached 8.98 trillion yuan, up 5.3 percent, constituting 65.1 percent of the total foreign trade.

Moreover, there has been notable shifts in regional structures, with exports to ASEAN and BRI partner countries experiencing rapid expansion. This export growth has contributed to a significant increase in the trade surplus, with the surplus with ASEAN countries jumping by 456.01 billion yuan in the same period, marking a significant rise of 18.1 percent.

The export of high-value electromechanical products witnessed rapid growth, with these products constituting nearly 60 percent of the total exports. Among them, exports of automatic data processing equipment and components, integrated circuits, and automobiles witnessed substantial growth.