Guangdong sees import export gains in July

Guangdong's import and export volume grew 0.1 percent year-on-year to reach 694.28 billion yuan ($99.18 billion) in July, demonstrating the province's foreign trade resilience and vitality.

Guangdong's foreign trade performance last month indicated that the province's import and export industry has begun to rebound, and plays an important role in stabilizing the country's overall foreign trade, according to a statement released by Guangdong Customs on Thursday.

Last month, the southern province, China's biggest foreign trader, sold 447.26 billion yuan worth of products abroad, up year-on-year 0.4 percent, while purchasing goods valued at 247.02 billion yuan from the rest of the world, a year-on-year reduction of 0.4 percent, the statement said.

Guangdong's July foreign trade figure has helped the province achieve an import and export volume of 4.55 trillion yuan in the seven months ending July, a slight year-on-year reduction of 1.1 percent and representing 19.3 percent of the country's total, revealed customs statistics.

And the reduction of Guangdong's foreign trade in the first seven months has narrowed by 0.2 percentage points when comparing to the figure recorded in the first half of the year, said the statement.

Guangdong's exports grew year-on-year 3.1 percent to hit 3 trillion yuan while its import witnessed a year-on-year reduction of 8.2 percent to come to 1.55 trillion yuan between January and July, it said.

Guangdong, a major global production base, achieved stability in foreign trade this year thanks to the continuous growth of the import and export scale of private enterprises, said the customs statement.

Guangdong's import and export volume from private enterprises reached 2.74 trillion yuan from January to July, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, accounting for 60.3 percent of the province's total, a year-on-year increase of 4 percentage points.

Foreign-funded companies and joint ventures achieved a foreign trade of 1.55 trillion yuan, while State-owned enterprises reached an import and export of 254.91 billion yuan in the same period, accounting for 34 percent and 5.6 percent of the province's total respectively, the statement said.

Guangdong's foreign trade with the countries related to China's Belt and Road Initiative hit 1.3 trillion yuan in the first seven months, up year-on-year 7.3 percent, 8.4 percentage points higher than the province's overall growth rate.

Guangdong's foreign trade volume with BRI-related countries accounted for 28.6 percent of the province's total.

And Guangdong's import and export volume with the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations, the province's biggest trade partner, reached 745.6 billion yuan in the first seven months, up 3.2 per cent year-on-year.