First up, a look at the Chinese economy. China's trade picture was brighter than expected in 2017 and business with some of the Belt and Road countries seemed to be among the highlights. Let's find out why and where the growth trends were.

Fresh data from the General Administration of Customs shows that China's exports rose 10.8 percent year on year last year while imports rose 18.7 percent. That produced a trade surplus of 2.9 trillion yuan. The total value of China's trade reached 27.8 trillion yuan last year, over 14 percent more than in 2016. The increase also reversed a two-year downward trend. The customs office said, exports to the Belt and Road countries has been on the rise, as China has been deepening its economic ties with the nations.

HUANG SONGPING, DIRECTOR GACC STATISTICS DIVISION "China is working well with the countries along the Belt and Road when it comes to economic cooperation. For the first 10 months of last year, China has exported 5.97 trillion yuan of goods to the Belt and Road countries. That's more than 19 percent of growth on year."

Imports enjoyed healthy growth last year as well, especially in the commodities sector. Data showed that China surpassed the U.S. in 2017 to become the world's largest oil importer for the first time ever. Oil imports from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela all rose about 10 percent in 2017 to an average of 8.4 million barrels a day. A big jump in imports was also seen in the metal sector thanks to more building and factory construction.

HUANG SONGPING, DIRECTOR GACC STATISTICS DIVISION "The global economy will continue to recover in 2018, and the Chinese economy has been remaining its stability, and that is good for trade. But there were still uncertainties in the global scene, plus the high base effect from last year, it will be hard for China's foreign trade growth to remain in the double digits this year."

The data also showed that China's trade surplus with the U.S. came in at an all-time high of 275.8 billion U.S. dollars.