Jilin foreign trade sees positive growth in first 10 months

Foreign trade in Northeast China's Jilin province hit 108.25 billion yuan ($16.49 billion) in first 10 months of the year, an increase of 1.8 percent over the same period last year, according to local media reports on Nov 19.

The accumulative foreign trade volume of the 10-month period went into growth after five consecutive months of declines compared with same period of last year. And the growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than the national average, ranking it first among China's three northeastern provinces.

The recovery came after Jilin's foreign trade volume for the month of October surged to 13.43 billion yuan, an increase of 40.6 percent over the same month last year. Exports came in at 2.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent, while imports were worth 10.73 billion yuan, soaring 52.8 percent on the same period last year.

Breaking down the categories, that general trade and the processing trade in Jilin increased in the first 10 months and the proportion of their contribution to total foreign trade gained, too.

The European Union, Japan and Mexico were Jilin's top three trading partners during the period, with the value of imports and exports with these partners increasing. In addition, foreign trade to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative was also on the up.

Mechanical and electrical products and agricultural products were the main export commodities in the 10 months, of which exports of rail transit equipment, fresh and dried fruits and nuts increased significantly.

At the same time, mechanical and electrical products powered an overall increase in imports, while imports of agricultural products also increased significantly.

In addition, foreign trade conducted by domestic internationally funded enterprises topped 50 percent of the total during the period and their contribution increased by 3.9 percentage points. Foreign trade by State-owned enterprises and private companies accounted for 28.4 percent and 20.2 percent of the total, respectively.