Export decrease rate narrowed in first 10 months

In the first 10 months of 2009, China's export value totaled 957.36 billion U.S. dollars, down 20.5 percent year on year; import value totaled 798.13 billion U.S. dollars, down 19 percent, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs November 23. As export prices have plunged 6.4 percent, after deducting price factors, the actual decrease rate of China's export in the first 10 months is 15.1 percent, 1.1 percentage points lower than that of the first 9 months.

In October, China's export value totaled 110.76 billion yuan, down 5.6 percent deducting price factors, 1.1 percentage points lower than the September figure. Import totaled 86.78 billion yuan, up 6.8 percent deducting price factors.

China's monthly export turnover stood over 100 billion U.S. dollars for the forth consecutive month in October, however, the export sector didn't see a robust rebound as expected. Relatively fewer working days in October led to the fact that year on year data failed to show a clear recovery, said Lu Zhengwei, a senior economist with the Industrial Bank.

In the first nine months of 2009, 19 economies launched 88 probes into Chinese products, involving 10.2 billion U.S. dollars of export goods. The two figures were 29 percent and 125 percent respectively higher than the same period last year. Meanwhile, the U.S.' recent probes towards Chinese products aroused concerns that China's export sector may suffer from further impact.

Between January and October, Sino-U.S. trade turnover recorded 239.36 billion U.S. dollars, down 14.9 percent year on year. The decrease rate is 3.8 percentage points lower than that of Sino-EU trade and 4.4 percentage points lower than Sino-Japan trade. Sino-U.S. trade accounted for 13.6 percent of China's total foreign trade.

The EU remains China's largest trade partner and export market. Sino-EU trade turnover fell 18.7 percent to 292.42 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 16.7 percent of China's foreign trade.

Jin Baisong, a researcher with the Research Institute of China's Ministry of Commerce, noted that China's export has decreased since the breakout of the global financial crisis, but with a smaller rate than other countries. China's share in the world market was in fact increasing, with the export of some products surging. In this case, trade frictions are inevitable, but they won't affect the rebounding trend of China's export.

In the first ten months, the import volume of major commodities all showed positive growth. Iron ore import increased by 36.8 percent to 510 million tons. Crude oil import increased by 9.4 percent to 170 million tons. Imports of soybean, plastics and coal grew by 13.2 percent, 30.6 percent and 1.7 fold respectively.

In addition, the statistics showed that in the first 10 months, exports of labor-intensive products dropped slower than 20.5 percent.

During the same period, mechanic-electronics products exports stood at 564.64 billion U.S. dollars, down 18.6 percent year on year.