China's foreign trade of goods rose 4.1% year on year in the first five months of this year to 12.1 trillion yuan (about US$1.76 trillion), customs data showed Monday.
Exports increased 6.1% year on year to 6.5 trillion yuan during this period, while imports grew 1.8% to 5.6 trillion yuan, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.
May trade rose 2.9% to amount to 2.59 trillion yuan. Exports grew 7.7%, reaching 1.43 trillion yuan, while imports dropped 2.5% , GAC data showed.
Trade surplus expanded 45% to 893.36 billion yuan during the January-May period.
The European Union was China's largest trading partner in the period, with bilateral trade volume up 11.7% from one year earlier to 1.9 trillion yuan, followed by the ASEAN, up 9.4% to 1.63 trillion yuan, and the United States, down 9.6% to 1.42 trillion yuan.
Trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative totaled 3.49 trillion yuan, up 9% year on year, 4.9 percentage points higher than the overall pace, the GAC said, adding that the amount accounted for 28.8 percent of China's total trade volume, up 1.3 percentage points from the same period last year.
The country's private businesses reported faster trade growth in the first five months, with the trade volume increasing 11.1% to 5.02 trillion yuan. The amount accounted for 41.4% of the total trade volume in the period, up 2.6 percentage points year on year.
Exports of mechanical and electrical products, as well as labor-intensive products such as textile and furniture, maintained growth in the period.
In addition, imports of crude oil and natural gas saw an increase, while soybean imports dropped in the first five months.
