According to statistics from the People’s Daily Online, the total value of my country’s imports and exports of goods trade in the first eight months of this year was 20.05 trillion yuan, down 0.6% from the same period last year, and the rate of decline narrowed by 1.1 percentage points from the previous seven months. Among them, exports were 11.05 trillion yuan, up 0.8% year-on-year; imports were 9 trillion yuan, down 2.3% year-on-year; the trade surplus was 2.05 trillion yuan, up 17.2% year-on-year.
In August, my country's foreign trade imports and exports reached 2.88 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Among them, exports were 1.65 trillion yuan, up 11.6% year-on-year; imports were 1.23 trillion yuan, down 0.5% year-on-year; the trade surplus was 416.59 billion yuan, up 74.4% year-on-year.
According to the General Administration of Customs, my country's foreign trade showed several characteristics in the first eight months. One is the growth and proportion of general trade imports and exports. In the first eight months, my country's general trade import and export was 12.09 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5% year-on-year, accounting for 60.3% of my country's total foreign trade value, an increase of 0.7% year-on-year. Among them, exports were 6.59 trillion yuan, up 2.5% year-on-year; imports were 5.5 trillion yuan, down 1.7% year-on-year.
Second, imports and exports to ASEAN, the EU and Japan increased, while imports to the United States decreased slightly. In the first eight months, ASEAN was my country's largest trading partner. The total trade value between my country and ASEAN was 2.93 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%, accounting for 14.6% of my country's total foreign trade value. The total value of trade with the EU was 2.81 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, accounting for 14% of my country's total foreign trade value. The total value of Sino-US trade was 2.42 trillion yuan, down 0.4% year-on-year, accounting for 12.1% of my country's total foreign trade value.
The third is the growth and proportion of private enterprises' imports and exports. In the first eight months, the import and export of private enterprises was 9.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%, accounting for 45.9% of my country's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, exports were 6.07 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.3% year-on-year, accounting for 54.9% of the total export value; imports were 3.14 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year, accounting for 34.9% of the total import value.
At the same time, my country's exports of mechanical and electrical products, textiles, and plastic products have increased, while exports of clothing have fallen, while imports of iron ore, crude oil, coal, natural gas, and soybeans have increased and prices have fallen.
