Economic Watch: China's foreign trade maintains steady growth

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade has been expanding steadily, exhibiting resilience as its economy continues its upward momentum.

The country's international trade in goods and services increased by 7 percent year on year last month to nearly 3.67 trillion yuan or 533 billion U.S. dollars, official data showed Friday.

It registered a surplus of 276.1 billion yuan in April, up 3 percent, said the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The surplus in goods trade reached 392.3 billion yuan, the highest monthly level in 2023.

Regarding primary items, the export and import of transport services, travel services, and other business services registered 142 billion yuan, 106.5 billion yuan, and 88 billion yuan, respectively.

The country's economy has got off to a steady start this year. With regular social and economic operations fully resumed in April, multiple output and demand indicators registered faster growth.

Official data showed that the world's second-largest economy saw a steady expansion in industrial output, consumption, and the services sector, among others, in April.

China has recently introduced new policies to stabilize the scale of foreign trade and improve its structure, which will help boost the confidence and vitality of foreign trade enterprises and promote the stability and quality of foreign trade throughout the year.

To keep the foreign trade scale stable, the country will create more opportunities, stabilize trade of vital products and support foreign trade companies.

To improve foreign trade structure, China will guide the transfer of processing trade to the central, western, and northeastern regions, formulate green and low-carbon standards for some foreign trade products, guide enterprises to make good use of cross-border e-commerce retail export-related tax policies and improve the efficiency of customs clearance.