China's trade with other BRICS members up 11.3% in Q1

BEIJING - China's trade with other BRICS members hit 1.49 trillion yuan ($209.7 billion) in the first quarter, up 11.3 percent year-on-year, according to customs authorities.

The trade value accounted for 14.7 percent of the nation's total foreign trade value during the same period, said the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Among BRICS members, China's exports to Brazil and imports from it rose 25.7 percent and 30.1 percent year-on-year, respectively, in the first quarter.

Trade between China and Russia continued to expand during the period, featured by growth in traded products such as energy, automobiles, as well as general machinery and equipment, according to the GAC.

Trade between China and India grew 8.5 percent in the first quarter, marking growth for five consecutive quarters.

Meanwhile, as China's largest trading partner in Africa for 14 consecutive years, South Africa saw robust growth in its trade with China. During the first quarter, China's exports to South Africa totaled 35.11 billion yuan, while its imports from the African nation stood at 66.46 billion yuan, said the GAC.

Customs data showed that China has maintained good cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the field of energy trade. The two countries were among the top 10 sources of energy products imported into China in the first quarter.

China also carried out practical cooperation with Egypt and Ethiopia in the field of infrastructure, while in the first quarter, China's export of contracted projects to the above two countries achieved rapid growth, according to the GAC.

Meanwhile, Chinese-manufactured goods were popular in Iran, with China's exported goods purchased by the Iranian market growing 15.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the data shows.

Lyu Daliang, director of the GAC's Department of Statistics and Analysis, said that the value of goods trade among BRICS countries accounted for about 20 percent of the world's total.

There remains great potential for trade to grow among BRICS nations and the bloc is expected to become an "accelerator" for global economic recovery and trade development, the official said.

BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market cooperative mechanism that initially featured Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. On Jan 1, 2024, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Ethiopia joined BRICS.