According to the latest figures published by the industry and commerce administration bureau of Yiwu city, market turnover between January and March this year reached Rmb11.306 billion, an increase of 14.17% year-on-year. Turnover of the China Small Commodities City alone amounted to Rmb7.737 billion, an increase of 7.56% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, Yiwu's export of small commodities also grew. According to the latest statistics published by the Yiwu office of Jinhua Customs, as at 26 March, Yiwu exported 22,098 shipments of small commodities in 40,605 TEUs in the current month, up 12.5% and 6.8% respectively year-on-year and representing new highs this year.

Another figure was from the "Yiwu Index". The weekly small commodity price index published by the Yiwu Index Office on 31 March 2009 was 99.86 points, slightly higher than the figure a week ago.

According to the Yiwu Index Compilation Office, there is an influx of foreign traders to Yiwu in recent months. Sales of goods in season are steadily growing. New collections of hats, bags, inflatable toys and other summer goods are coming to the market. The volume of export is showing a significant increase. Sales of entertainment and leisure supplies are gradually picking up, and musical instruments, outdoor goods and beauty and hair products and appliances are selling well. The demand for zippers, fabrics and jewellery parts is also growing thanks to the sustained brisk sales of bags and cases, garments and accessories and jewellery. Recent price indexes for 16 categories of products show nine categories, covering sports and entertainment supplies, rain gear, and clocks, watches and spectacles, on the rise and six on the decline.

As analysed by the Yiwu Office of Jinhua Customs, the sharp increase in the export of Yiwu small commodities to emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa at a time when the European and US markets were dwindling was a major reason explaining why Yiwu small commodities were selling hot in spite of the economic downturn. The adjustment of export destinations was one of the biggest changes Yiwu made to cope with the global financial crisis.

The US had been the biggest importer of Yiwu goods for many years. Yiwu has seen a substantial drop in its exports to the US and Europe since 2008 under the impact of the financial crisis. However, it has been making continuous efforts to open up emerging markets in the Middle East, ASEAN countries, Russia and South America. Today, the United Arab Emirates have taken over the US as the biggest importer of Yiwu goods.

Spending power in the US and Europe is on the decline under the impact of the financial crisis while the emerging markets are in a period of economic growth and commodity shortage. These have created conditions for Yiwu small commodities to demonstrate their excellent price/performance ratio. Thus, demand from overseas markets as a whole grew rather than dropped, thus boosting the sustained strong performance of Yiwu's economic indicators.