China News Agency, Beijing, April 13th (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) China's foreign trade unexpectedly ushered in a "good start" in the first quarter, with a year-on-year growth rate of 29.2% in total import and export value.
Li Kuiwen, a spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs of China, said on the 13th that the performance of foreign trade in the first quarter was a good start for the whole year of “steady volume and quality improvement”. In the future, foreign trade is expected to continue to maintain a year-on-year growth trend.
Li Kuiwen said at a press conference held on the same day that although there were factors such as a low base due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic last year, compared with the same period in 2019, China's import and export growth rate in the first quarter of this year still reached 20.5%, continuing to last year. The upward momentum has continued since the second half of the year.
In addition, from 2016 to the first quarter of 2020, China's imports and exports both fell by double digits compared to the previous quarter. The first quarter of this year saw the smallest decline in recent years, which also confirmed the positive trend of foreign trade in the first quarter.
He said that the large increase in foreign trade in the first quarter was the result of a combination of factors.
The global economy and trade are recovering growth. In March, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of the U.S., Europe, and Japan all hit multi-year highs, driving the rapid growth of China's exports.
The sustained and stable recovery of China's economy has promoted the development of imports.
At present, China's manufacturing PMI has been on the line of prosperity and decline for 13 consecutive months. The production index and new order index of most industries are above the threshold. The boom in the manufacturing industry has driven the rapid growth of imports of integrated circuits, energy resources and other products.
Li Kuiwen said that during the Spring Festival holiday this year, most manufacturing employees chose to celebrate the New Year in situ. Many enterprises in major foreign trade provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang "non-stop" production have also boosted domestic industrial production and shortened foreign trade orders to a certain extent. Lead time.
Since the third quarter of last year, China's foreign trade has maintained positive year-on-year growth for three consecutive quarters.
Li Kuiwen believes that this trend is expected to be maintained for a period of time in the future, but taking into account factors such as the recurrence of the global epidemic and the high base in the second quarter of last year, the specific trend needs further observation.
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