China's foreign trade hits historic highs in November

Statistics released by General Administration of Customs of China today show that China's foreign trade has been soaring steadily in the first 11 moths of the year with imports and exports in November both hitting record highs.

From January to November, China's imports and exports totaled nearly 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 36.3 percent, with the exports rising by 33 percent to 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars and imports soaring 40.3 percent to 1.25 trillion U.S. dollars.

However, the trade surplus shrank by 3.9 percent to 170.4 billion U.S. dollars.

In November, imports and exports totaled 284 billion U.S. dollars breaking the record of 273 billion U.S. dollar in September. It was also the first time that foreign trade has topped 280 billion U.S. dollars in history. Compared with the same month last year and the previous month of October, there was a growth of more than 36 percent and nearly 16 percent, respectively.

The value of both the imports and the exports set new monthly historic records in November. The exports in November amounted to 153 billion U.S. dollars, up nearly 35 percent year on year. The imports, driven by the rise of both volume and prices, were pushed by 38 percent higher than the same month of last year to 130.4 billion U.S. dollars. The imports grew 12.3 percentage points faster than that in October.

Trade with major partners is booming. Trade with the European Union, China's largest trading partner, reached 434 billion U.S. dollar over the first 11 months of the year, up by 33 percent year on year. Trade with the United States and Japan, the second and third largest partners, respectively, totaled 347 billion U.S. dollars and 159 billion U.S. dollars, marking a significant growth of 30 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Trade with the ASEAN soared by 40.6 percent to 263 billion U.S. dollars.

China’s trade deficit with Japan and ASEAN widened sharply in the period. The deficit with Japan of 49.6 billion U.S. dollars soared by 74 percent and the deficit with the ASEAN of 14 billion U.S. dollars was 17 times that of the first 11 months of last year.