China is likely to achieve its annual goals for ensuring the stability and enhancing the quality of foreign trade, with positive factors continuing to take effect in the fourth quarter, government officials and analysts said on Thursday.

 

Despite facing challenges like shrinking external demand, geopolitical impacts and difficult transformations by domestic manufacturers, they said that the diversification and decentralization of China's export markets have contributed to the stability of foreign trade. Moreover, the robust growth of technology-intensive green products, coupled with a rapid recovery in electronic product exports, has become apparent.

 

China's foreign trade amounted to 37.96 trillion yuan ($5.3 trillion) from January to November, remaining consistent with the corresponding period from the previous year, said the General Administration of Customs.

 

In November alone, China's two-way trade value reached 3.7 trillion yuan, up 1.2 percent year-on-year.

 

Wang Xiaohong, deputy head of the information department at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said the growth rate of exports is expected to continue expanding in the coming months.

 

With overseas markets entering the traditional peak retail season in December and January, coupled with the low base effect, China's export growth rate is expected to maintain its expansion, said Zhou Maohua, a macroeconomic researcher at China Everbright Bank.

 

Judging from the structure of imported goods in November, while imports of integrated circuits and steel continued to decline, the volume of imported commodities such as energy and iron ore maintained rapid growth, reflecting an overall recovery in demand across the world, said Zhou.

 

Given the obstacles to growth, the World Trade Organization has revised its projection for global trade volume growth in 2023, lowering it from 1.7 percent to 0.8 percent. Additionally, global trade value is expected to decrease due to the current decline in commodity prices, according to information released by the Ministry of Commerce.

 

The Geneva-based WTO highlighted the impact on certain export-oriented economies, citing an 11.5 percent year-on-year drop in South Korea's exports in the third quarter and an 8.5 percent decrease in Vietnam. | China Daily