China's foreign trade grows 28.2% in first 5 months

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - China's foreign trade grew 28.2% in the first five months of 2021, compared to the same period of last year, the country's General Administration of Customs said on Monday.

Foreign trade volume expanded to 14.7 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) in the January-May period. While exports gained 30.1% to around 8 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion), imports grew 25.9% to approximately 6.7 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) year-over-year.

China's total trade surplus increased 56.2% to 1.3 trillion yuan ($0.2 trillion) during that period.

Labor-intensive products grabbed the highlight during the January-May period, as exports of automobiles surged 95.8% to 75.6 billion yuan ($11.8 billion) and mobile phones were up 28.8% to 354.8 billion yuan ($55.5 billion).

The positive figures come despite the coronavirus pandemic having a negative impact on the global economy, and China continuing its trade war with the US.

China's trade surplus with the US stood at 860.5 billion yuan ($134.5 billion) in the first five months of the year, which was up 34.1% compared with the same period of previous year.

Chinese exports to the US grew 38.9% and imports increased 48.5% during that period.