Yantian International Container Terminals, Shenzhen, China, June 23, 2024. /CFP
China's total goods imports and exports came in at 21.17 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion), expanding 6.1 percent year on year in the first half of this year, according to the General Administration of Customs on Friday.
The country's exports rose 6.9 percent, while imports climbed 5.2 percent. In the second quarter, total imports and exports gained 7.4 percent compared to a year earlier, also higher than the 4.9 percent increase in the first quarter of this year and 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
The latest data indicates that the scale of China's foreign trade has reached a new record high, and the positive trend of foreign trade has been further consolidated.
A China-Europe freight train at China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Cooperation Base, Jiangsu Province, China, July 3, 2024. /CFP
Notably, trade between China and Belt and Road participating countries totaled 10.03 trillion yuan ($1.38 trillion), surging 7.2 percent in the first six months of this year. Meanwhile, China's trade and its top trading partner ASEAN reached 3.36 trillion yuan ($46.26 million), projecting a 10.5 percent increase from a year earlier.
(With input from Xinhua)