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Foreign Trade

From January to February, the volume of Chinas foreign trade hit $226.37 billion, expanding 26.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the General Administration of Customs (see graph 1). The trade surplus reached $12.01 billion at the end of February.

In February alone, the volume of foreign trade grew 25.8 percent from a year ago, standing at $105.85 billion. Of the total, exports and imports grew to $54.15 billion and $51.7 billion, up 22.3 percent and 29.6 percent, respectively, year on year. This month saw a trade surplus of $2.45 billion, the smallest since August 2004 and $7.11 billion less than the figure in January.

In the first two months, total volumes of general trade and processing trade amounted to $95.75 billion and $109.04 billion, increasing 22.3 percent and 29.5 percent, respectively, year on year (see graph 2).

Volumes of Chinas bilateral trade with its major trading partners maintained rapid growth (see graph 3).

Among the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai achieved the largest volumes of foreign trade. Through January and February, their foreign trade volumes arrived at $63.63 billion, $36.79 billion and $31.85 billion, increasing 28.1 percent, 24.5 percent and 22.1 percent, respectively, year on year.

Machinery and electrical products still occupied the largest share of total exports. In the first two months, exports of such products were valued at $68.97 billion, surging 34.3 percent compared with the same period last year, accounting for 57.9 percent of total exports during this period.

Of this total, exports of machinery products and equipment reached $24.09 billion, up 25.5 percent year on year; those of electrical appliances and electronic products, $28.05 billion, up 42.9 percent; and those of hi-tech products, $35.77 billion, up 36.9 percent.

At the same time, China exported $10.77 billion worth of clothes, $3.12 billion worth of shoes and $1.8 billion worth of plastics, up 15.6 percent, 16 percent and 23.5 percent, respectively, over the year-earlier period.

From January to February, China imported $26.64 billion worth of primary products, surging 41.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

The country also bought $80.54 billion worth of finished industrial products, increasing 23.4 percent from a year ago and accounting for 75.1 percent of total imports. Of this total, imports of machinery and electrical products were valued at $57.42 billion, up 31.8 percent over the same period last year. In the first two months, China imported 29,000 automobiles, 1.1 times the figure in the same period last year.

Retail Sales

In the first two months, retail sales of consumer goods amounted to 1.26 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Retail sales of consumer goods increased 15.5 percent and 9.4 percent in January and February, respectively.

By region, retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas stood at 849.6 billion yuan, rising 12.7 percent over a year ago, and those in rural areas arrived at 414.7 billion yuan, jumping 11.1 percent.

By sector, the sales volume of the wholesale and retail sector arrived at 1.06 trillion yuan, up 12.7 percent over the year-earlier period; that of the accommodation and catering sector grew 13.1 percent to 176 billion yuan; and that of other sectors totaled 23.8 billion yuan, climbing 1.1 percent compared with the same period last year.

From January to February, retail sales of food, clothing and commodities rose 13.5 percent, 16.6 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively, year on year (see graph 4).

Industrial Growth

From January to February, the added value completed by all state-owned enterprises as well as non-state enterprises with annual sales revenue of more than 5 million yuan reached 1.11 trillion yuan, increasing 16.2 percent compared with the same period last year, according to statistics released by the NBS.

The sales ratio of industrial products was 96.99 percent, a decline of 0.28 percentage points over a year ago. The export delivery value of these enterprises stood at 745.4 billion yuan, expanding 24.2 percent (see graph 5).

Fixed Assets Investment

From January to February, the aggregated fixed assets investment in urban areas was 529.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.6 percent, said the NBS (see graph 6). Of the total, the investment by state-owned and state-holding enterprises was 2.5 billion yuan, up 16.4 percent, and the investment in real estate development was 143.6 billion yuan, rising 19.7 percent over a year ago.

The investment in central projects arrived at 54.5 billion yuan, expanding 19.3 percent year on year, and that in regional projects was 474.9 billion yuan, an increase of 27.5 percent over the same period last year.

During this period, the investment in coal mining and washing was 3.9 billion yuan, up 27.3 percent; that in petroleum and natural gas exploitation was 10.8 billion yuan, growing 21.4 percent; and that in the production and supply of electricity, gas and water was 54.2 billion yuan, jumping 14 percent compared with the same period last year.

In the January-February period, the investment from domestic enterprises reached 449.5 billion yuan, expanding 27.3 percent over the same period last year. The investment from foreign-funded enterprises stood at 47.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.2 percent, and that from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan-funded enterprises grew 6.7 percent to 30.8 billion yuan.

In the first two months, there were 48,589 projects under construction, 9,913 more than the figure in the same period last year. The total planned investment in these projects was 9.77 trillion yuan, surging 39.8 percent year on year. Of the total, the number of newly started projects was 11,723, 4,140 more than that a year ago, with a total planned investment of 634.8 billion yuan, growing 33.4 percent.

The paid-in capital totaled 939.8 billion yuan, surging 29.7 percent over the year-earlier period. Of this total, domestic loans, foreign investment and self-collected funds were up 31.9 percent, 34.5 percent and 38.2 percent, respectively, year on year.