Kyodo News:

From a macroeconomic perspective, the continued negative growth in imports and exports through September has raised concerns among international institutions regarding the state of the Chinese economy. How do you view the outlook for China's trade? Thank you.

Lyu Daliang:

Thank you for your question. I've just discussed China's trade situation in the first three quarters. Recently, with the rise in favorable factors, foreign trade has shown a positive trend. As for the future of China's foreign trade, we believe many advantageous factors will continue to support it.

First, the domestic economy is performing well. The manufacturing PMI has shown consecutive monthly increases for four months, and in August, the monthly growth rates of industrial value-added and retail sales accelerated by 0.8 and 2.1 percentage points, respectively. Especially during the recent Golden Week holiday, everyone could feel the vibrant surge of China's economy.

Second, industrial advantages are being consolidated. Export-oriented industries with advantages, such as shipbuilding, engineering machinery, and household appliances, have seen further improvements in market share, international competitiveness, and brand influence. Simultaneously, the import and export of consumer electronics are showing signs of recovery. Import and export of integrated circuits saw consecutive monthly increases in August and September, and the year-on-year decline in exports of mobile phones and computers in September has significantly narrowed.

Third, the orders and confidence of businesses have seen improvement. According to the China Customs Trade Prosperity Survey, in September, the proportion of businesses that reported rising or steady month-on-month export and import orders increased by 0.8 and 1.7 percentage points, respectively. The proportion of businesses optimistic about exports and imports prospects grew by 1.3 and 0.7 percentage points month on month, respectively.

It cannot be denied that China's foreign trade will continue to face numerous difficulties and challenges. A more complex and daunting external environment, stagnant global economic recovery, unilateralism, trade protectionism, and geopolitical risks, among others, will exert pressure on China's foreign trade.

However, taken as a whole, as I mentioned earlier, with our economic recovery showing positive trends and the implementation of foreign trade policies and measures focused on ensuring scale and optimizing structure, imports and exports are expected to maintain their growth momentum and achieve the annual goal of maintaining stability and improving quality.