China’s foreign trade volume declined by 5.9% in the first quarter of this year

Almaty. April 13. Silkroadnews – In the first quarter of 2016 the total volume of China’s foreign trade declined by 5.9% in annual terms to 5.2 trillion yuan ($804.3 billion), the official representative of the General Administration of Customs of China Juan Sunpin said, TASS agency informs.

“In the first quarter of this year import and export volumes continued to decline. In general, the share of private companies in the export volume remains high, while the Chinese exports are still dominated by electrical and labor-intensive products. If talking about the import volume, China continues to increase the iron ore, oil and copper purchases, though price level for these products remains low,” said Juan Sunpin at the press conference.

China’s exports in the first quarter decreased by 4.2% to 3 trillion yuan ($464 billion), imports fell by 8.2% to 2.2 trillion yuan ($340.3 billion). The foreign trade balance surplus amounted to 810.2 billion yuan ($125.31 billion, i.e. 8.5% increase).

He noted the trade turnover increased by 8.6% in March 2016 and made 1.91 trillion yuan ($295.4 billion). Exports from China grew by 18.7% and amounted to 1.05 trillion yuan ($162.4 billion), while imports fell by 1.7% to 855.5 billion yuan ($ 132.32 billion). The foreign trade balance surplus for this this period amounted to 194.6 billion yuan ($30.1 billion).

Meanwhile, the trade turnover between Russia and China in the first quarter of 2016 grew by 3.6% in annual terms to 91.77 billion yuan ($14.19 billion).