Hu Kaihong:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this SCIO briefing. Starting today, we will hold a series of briefings to introduce the statistical data of China's economic performance for the full year of 2018. Today, we are delighted to invite Mr. Li Kuiwen, spokesperson of the General Administration of Customs, and director general of the Department of Statistics & Analysis, to talk about the state of China's imports and exports in 2018. He will also answer questions of interest to you.

Now, I will give the floor to Mr. Li.

Li Kuiwen:

Before taking your questions, I would like to give you a brief introduction of the general situation with China's foreign trade imports and exports in 2018.

In 2018, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, all localities and departments actively implemented a series of policies and measures to promote the stable growth of foreign trade, effectively responding to the profound changes in the external environment. During the year, foreign trade remained stable overall and saw steady growth, with the import and export scale reaching a record high. Therefore, China is expected to maintain its position as the world's largest trader in goods. According to customs statistics, the total value of China's foreign trade, imports and exports together, was 30.51 trillion yuan in 2018, an increase of 9.7 percent from 2017. Of that, exports grew 7.1 percent to 16.42 trillion yuan, while imports went up 12.9 percent to 14.09 trillion yuan, and the foreign trade surplus shrank 18.3 percent to 2.33 trillion yuan. Priced in terms of U.S. dollars, China's total foreign trade value was US$4.62 trillion in 2018, up 12.6 percent. Exports amounted to US$2.48 trillion of that, up 9.9 percent, and imports were US$2.14 trillion, up 15.8 percent from the previous year. The foreign trade surplus stood at US$351.76 billion, shrinking 16.2 percent. Specifically, the foreign trade situation presents the following characteristics.

First, imports and exports have seen a steady upswing, reaching a combined value of 10 trillion yuan for the first time in 2005, then 20 trillion yuan in 2010. In 2018, the volume hit a new height by exceeding 30 trillion yuan, 2.7 trillion yuan more than the previous year.

Second, imports and exports of general trade grew rapidly as well, representing an increased proportion. The volume reached 17.64 trillion yuan last year, a growth of 12.5 percent year over year. This constituted 57.8 percent of the country's entire imports and exports, 1.4 percentage points higher than the ratio in 2017, indicating an improvement of trade structures.

Third, China's imports and exports with major trade partners secured overall growth. China maintains good cooperative momentum with countries along the Belt and Road. Trade with China's top three partners, namely the European Union, the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), increased by 7.9 percent, 5.7 percent and 11.2 percent respectively in 2018. In combination, these accounted for 41.2 percent of China's total imports and exports. At the same time, trade with the countries along the Belt and Road reached 8.37 trillion yuan in aggregation, up 13.3 percent year over year and 3.6 percentage points higher than the country's holistic trade growth. The potential of trade partnerships between China and countries along the Belt and Road has continued to evolve, forming a new driving force behind the country's foreign trade as a whole. Specifically, imports and exports to Russia, Saudi Arabia and Greece increased by 24 percent, 23.2 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

Fourth, the import and export of private enterprises have increased, and their proportion of China's total imports and exports has also grown. In 2018, the import and export of private enterprises in China was 12.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.9 percent compared to 2017. Private enterprises accounted for 39.7 percent of China's total import and export value, an increase of 1.1 percentage points over 2017. Exports were valued 7.87 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.4 percent. Private sector exports continued to dominate the Chinese export market, accounting for 48 percent of the total export market, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over 2017. Meanwhile, imports reached 4.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.1 percent. In 2018, the contribution of private enterprises in China to the growth of foreign trade imports and exports exceeded 50 percent, which became a highlight of China's foreign trade development. During the same period, the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises were 12.99 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.3 percent, accounting for 42.6 percent of China's total imports and exports. The import and export of state-owned enterprises were 5.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.8 percent, accounting for 17.4 percent of China's total imports and exports.

Fifth, the growth rate of imports and exports in the central, western, and northeastern regions was higher than the overall national growth rate, and regional development was more coordinated. In 2018, the growth rate of foreign trade in the 12 provinces and cities in the west registered at 16.1 percent, exceeding the national growth rate by 6.4 percentage points. The growth rate of foreign trade in the six provinces and cities in the central region was 11.4 percent, exceeding the national growth rate by 1.7 percentage points. The growth rate of foreign trade in the three northeastern provinces was 14.8 percent, exceeding the national growth rate by 5.1 percentage points. Finally, the growth rate of foreign trade in the 10 eastern provinces and cities stood at 8.8 percent.

Sixth, mechanical and electrical products took a larger share of China's exports, and the export commodity structure has been further optimized. In 2018, exports of mechanical and electrical products amounted to 9.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9 percent, accounting for 58.8 percent of China's total exports. And this percentage grew by 0.4 percentage points from 2017. China's automotive exports grew by 8.3 percent and cellular phone exports by 9.8 percent. Toys, garments and five additional labor-intensive products exported by China in 2018 reached a combined total of 3.12 trillion yuan, which is 1.2 percent more than last year, accounting for19 percent of the total.

Seventh, both the import price and volume of oil, gas, copper and other commodities are on the rise, while the import volume of iron ore and soybean have fallen. China's import of crude oil amounted to 462 million tons, gas 90.39 million tons, refined oil products33.48 million tons and copper 5.3 million tons, up 10.1, 31.9, 13 and 12.9 percent from last year, respectively. On the other hand, the import of iron ore fell by 1 percent to 1.064 billion tons and soybeans fell by 7.9 percent to 88.03 million tons. Preliminary estimates indicate that the China's import prices on the whole increased by 6.1 percent in 2018, and that the import price of oil grew by 30 percent, refined oil products by 20 percent, gas by 22.9 percent and copper by 3.2 percent.

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