Hai Tong

China's import and export volume reached US$1,338.66 billion in the first eight months of 2009, declining 22.4% year on year. Of this, exports accounted for US$730.74 billion, down 22.2%; and the imports accounted for US$607.92 billion, down 22.7%. The trade surplus in the period was US$122.82 billion, dropping 19% from the same period last year.

In August, the country's imports and export were US$191.7 billion, down 20.6% year on year, and 4.3% month on month, including US$103.7 billion of exports, down 23.4% year on year and 1.6% month on month; and US$88.0 billion of imports, down 17% year on year and 7.2% month on month. The trade surplus amounted US$15.71 billion in the month, a decrease of 45.5% year on year.

The August year on year growth remained unchanged after the seasonal adjustment, and the imports and exports, exports and imports went up 2.3%, 3.4% and 1% over July respectively.

The main features of China's import and export trade in the January-August period were:

1. China's imports and exports achieved month on month increases for six successive months after the bottom touching in February. China's foreign trade had made fast declining for five consecutive months start October 2008 and reached the bottom in February 2009, and then regained the recovery for five months running since March. The month on month growth of the monthly imports and exports stood at 23.5% in March, 7.6% in April, 2.1% in May, 3.4% in June, 4.4% in July and 2.3% in August, and the growth of the monthly exports in the six months was 31.8%, 2.4%, 0.2%, 4.5%, 5.2% and 3.4% respectively, and that of the monthly imports was 14.4%, 14.3%, 4.4%, 2.2%, 3.5% and 1% respectively, basically forming the month on month upward turn.

2. Import and export in the form of general trade presented better performance than other forms, and the trade surplus under the general trade dropped a lot. China's import and export in general trade reached US$654.86 billion from January to August, down 22.1% year on year and accounting for 48.9% of the country's total import and export. Of this, export in general trade was US$327.96 billion, down 25.2%, and accounting for 44.9% of the total exports of the country, and import was US$326.9 billion, down 18.8%, and accounting for 53.8% of the country's total, presenting a trade surplus under general trade account of US$1.06 billion, plunging 97.1% year on year.

3. Shares of processing trade in the total imports and export dropped, but imports in processing trade fell sharply. China's import and export in processing trade reached US$541.98 billion, down 22.9% year on year, and accounting for 40.5% of the total import and export of the country. Of this, the export was US$351.51 billion, down 20.9% year on year, taking up 48.1% of the total export of the country, the import, US$190.47 billion, down 26.2% year on year, 31.3% of the total import of the country. The trade surplus under processing trade amounted to US$161.04 billion, down 13.5% year on year.

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