South China's Guangdong Province set a new record by exporting US$8.56 billion worth of commodities in August.

Local customs statistics show that the province did US$108.92

billion worth of foreign trade from January to August, up 26.6 percent from the same period last year or accounting for 36.1 percent of the national total.

In a breakdown, exports over the past eight months brought in

US$59.35 billion, up 26.4 percent, while imports were US$49.57 billion, up 26.8 percent. Import and export in August alone stood at US$15.66 billion, up 21.5 percent from August of 1999.

Most of the province's exports and imports were done through

the processing trade. Though the province completed 65.9 percent

of its pre-set export goal for this year in eight months, the

increasing export rate is lower than the national average growing export rate and has continued to fall.

Export of major commodities continued to grow drastically.

Exported electrical machinery for January-August period made up US$31.26 billion, up 33.4 percent from the same period last

year or accounting for 52.7 percent of the province's total export.

(Xinhua)