BEIJING: China’s foreign trade is expected to withstand the challenges posed by a complex global environment and demonstrate hard-won resilience to bolster the country’s economic growth in the second half of this year, government officials and analysts said on Thursday.
They also urged more policy support to cope with weakening external demand and potential risks, as global economic recovery remains sluggish, major developed economies are adopting contractionary policies, and various factors increase market instability and uncertainty.
In the first half of 2023, China’s foreign trade reached 20.1 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion), up 2.1 percent year-on-year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
In dollar terms, total foreign trade came in at $2.92 trillion during the period, down 4.7 percent year-on-year.
While concerns have been raised about the growth rate of China’s foreign trade, Lyu Daliang, director-general of the administration’s statistics and analysis department, said the government remains confident in the overall stability of the sector. This confidence is supported by positive indicators such as second-quarter readings, as well as growth observed on a quarter-on-quarter or month-on-month basis in the data for May and June.
Lyu said the cumulative effect of China’s unwavering commitment to openness and its proactive efforts to advance international economic and trade cooperation is now becoming evident, driving both the economic growth and the stability of foreign trade in terms of scale and structure.
“This is the first time in history that China’s foreign trade value has exceeded 20 trillion yuan during a half-year period,” he said, stressing that China is capable of consolidating its market share and maintaining its position as the world’s largest goods trading nation in 2023. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
