On April 13th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on China's import and export situation in the first quarter of 2023. Li Da Liang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and director of the Department of Statistical Analysis, introduced that in the first quarter of this year, China's economy showed a trend of recovery and improvement, and foreign trade imports and exports started smoothly and improved month by month. According to customs statistics, in the first quarter, China's total value of goods trade imports and exports was 9.89 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.8% year-on-year. Among them, exports were 5.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year; imports were 4.24 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.2% year-on-year. Specifically, there are six main characteristics:
Firstly, the growth rate of imports and exports has increased month by month. In January this year, affected by the Spring Festival holiday, imports and exports fell by 7%. In February it "turned from negative to positive", with a monthly increase of 8%, and the year-on-year growth rate rose to 15.5% in March, showing a trend of improvement month by month. The overall growth rate in the first quarter was 4.8%, an acceleration of 2.6 percentage points from the fourth quarter of last year, starting smoothly and well.
Secondly, the number of foreign trade operators has increased steadily. In the first quarter, there were 457,000 foreign trade enterprises with import and export performance in China, an increase of 5.9% year-on-year. Among them, there were 384,000 private enterprises, an increase of 7.5%, with imports and exports of 5.18 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.4%, accounting for 52.4% of China's total import and export value. During the same period, foreign-invested enterprises imported and exported 3.04 trillion yuan and state-owned enterprises imported and exported 1.65 trillion yuan, accounting for 30.7% and 16.7% of total imports and exports respectively.
Thirdly, the proportion of general trade imports and exports has increased. In the first quarter, China's general trade imports and exports were 6.46 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year, accounting for 65.3% of total imports and exports value, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them,exports were 3.68 trillion yuan , an increase of 12.7%; imports were 2.78 trillion yuan , an increase of 2.2%. During the same period , processing trade imports and exports were 1.79 trillion yuan , accounting for 18.1% of total import and export value.
Fourthly , ASEAN imports and exports grew rapidly . In the first quarter , China's imports and exports to its largest trading partner ASEAN were RMB1 .56 trillion , up by16 .1 % year on year ,11 .3 percentage points higher than overall growth rate , accounting for15 .8 %of total import and export value ; Imports and exports to EU , US , Japan ,and South Korea were RMB1 .34 trillion , RMB1 .11 trillion , RMB546 .41 billion ,and RMB528 .46 billion respectively , accounting for35 .6 %of total import and export value . During the same period , China's imports and exports to countries along the "Beltand Road" increased by16 .8 %year on year , accounting for34 .6 %of total import and export value , up by3 .5 percentage points ; Importsand exports to other RCEP member countries increased by7 .3 %.
Fifthly , both electromechanical productsand labor-intensive products achieved export growth . Inthe first quarter , China's electromechanical productsexports were RMB3 .27trillion , up by7 .6 %year on year , accounting for57 .9 %of total export value ; Among them , automobiles , household appliancesand batteries exported RMB147 .47billion , RMB141 .24billionand RMB116 .34billionrespectively , up by96 .6 %,3 .2 %and84 .8 %respectively . Duringthe same period , labor-intensive productsexports were RMB94 .746billion , up by5 .7 %; Among them , clothing , plastic productsand furniture exported RMB24 .185billion , RMB17 .024billionand RMB10
