CCTV:

Mr. Huang, what's your assessment of the overall development of China's foreign trade in 2017? Last year, China's foreign trade registered a double-digit growth, while in the previous two years, foreign trade had seen a year-on-year decrease. Some think the growth (of last year) was only a periodic rebound - what's your opinion?

Huang Songping:

In 2017, the world economy had a moderate recovery, and the domestic economy saw a stable growth. Several factors, such as the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative and foreign trade policy addressing stable growth, have ensured the double-digit recovery growth of China's foreign trade. The following are the detailed reasons I want to mention. 

First, the world economy had a moderate recovery and foreign demand increased. In 2017, the world economy's performance was better than expected and the world market had a larger demand. WTO statistics showed that the exports of commodities in 70 major economies in the world increased by more than nine percent in the first three quarters, which exemplified the obvious growth of world trade.

Second, the domestic economy registered a stable growth and laid a foundation for import growth. In 2017, China's economy retained a stable growth with the deepening of supply-side structural reform. Improving real economy has driven the increase of imports. Meanwhile, China issued a series of policies and measures to expand imports, including lowering the import tariffs of some consumer goods. We also improved the fiscal and financial policies for import expansion, encouraged imports of advanced technology equipment as well as key elements and parts, and enhanced measures to facilitate trade. They all had a positive impact on increasing imports.

Third, the year-on-year increase of commodity prices drove the rapid growth of imports. In 2017, rising commodity prices drove up China's import price index to 109.4, and the prices contributed 52.6 percent of the import growth. Rising prices of imported materials cast an influence on the export of finished products. The export price index of China in 2017 was 103.9, with prices contributing 37.3 percent of export growth.

Fourth, the Belt and Road Initiative has steadily advanced, and new markets have been explored effectively. In 2017, China's import and export with the countries along the Belt and Road routes increased by 17.8 percent, 3.6 percentage points higher than the growth of the national total. In the same period, China's import and export with Latin American countries increased by 22 percent, and that with African countries by 17.3 percent. A string of policies and measures promoting foreign trade growth has taken effect. We have deepened reform to streamline administration, delegate powers and improve regulation and services, thereby reducing the burden on enterprises. Therefore, the domestic business environment has been improved, enterprises have strengthened their innovation capability and the internal forces driving the development of foreign trade have been boosted. 

In addition, low base figures of foreign trade in the previous two years also contributed to the high growth in 2017. Thank you.

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