China says 2019 trade growth to have strong underpinning

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China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Thursday that the country's foreign trade growth in 2019 will have strong underpinning despite external challenges.

As the country continues to push forward the supply-side structural reform, the structure of China's exports and imports will be further optimized, while growth potential of imports will be boosted, MOFCOM spokesperson Gao Feng told a weekly news briefing.

Gao said although external uncertainties such as protectionism and unilateralism will add challenges to trade growth next year, the trend of economic globalization remains unchanged, and demand from major markets continues to expand.

China's total imports and exports between January and the middle of November this year surpassed the whole trade volume of 2017, an increase of nearly 15 percent from one year earlier, according to customs data.

Trade data during the January-October period revealed that the country's trade market diversification has accelerated, and thus fluctuations in certain markets will have limited impact on the country's broad trade growth, according to Gao.

For the first 10 months of the year, China's foreign trade with the European Union, the United States, ASEAN countries and Japan, which each account for 14.7 percent, 13.7 percent, 12.7 percent and 7.1 percent of the total, rose 12.9 percent, 12 percent, 18.5 percent and 10.6 percent respectively compared with one year earlier.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency