China's foreign trade regains momentum in May

BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade rebounded in May as total imports and exports went up 9.6 percent year on year to 3.45 trillion yuan on top of April's 0.1-percent expansion, official data showed Thursday.

In the first five months of 2022, the country's foreign trade volume gained 8.3 percent year on year to 16.04 trillion yuan, outpacing the 7.9-percent-growth in the January-April period, according to the General Administration of Customs.

In U.S. dollar terms, total foreign trade came in at 2.51 trillion U.S. dollars in the five-month period, up 10.3 percent year on year.

In the first five months, exports grew 11.4 percent year on year while imports rose 4.7 percent, leading to a trade surplus of 1.84 trillion yuan, customs data showed.

During this period, China's trade with its top three trading partners -- the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the United States -- expanded by 8.1 percent, 7 percent and 10.1 percent from a year ago, respectively.

From January to May, China's trade with Belt and Road countries jumped by 16.8 percent year on year to 5.11 trillion yuan.

Private enterprises reported a faster growth as their imports and exports rose 11.8 percent to 7.86 trillion yuan in the first five months, accounting for 49 percent of the country's total, marking an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the same period last year.

In terms of types of goods, exports of mechanical and electrical products expanded by 7 percent to account for 57.2 percent of the total, while labor-intensive products increased 11.6 percent in the first five months, customs data showed.