China's Imports and Exports Drop 29% in January

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In January, China's imports and exports totaled $141.8 billion, a drop of 29% compared with the same period last year. Exports totaled $90.45 billion, down 17.5%, and imports totaled $51.34 billion, down 43.1%. A trade surplus of $39.1 billion was registered, a jump of 102% year over year, the General Customs Administration of China announced on February 11.

Click on the image at right for details on China's January 2009 imports and exports.

Despite the rapid drop in imports and exports in January, exports actually increased 6.8% on daily base when considering that there were five business days less in the month this year compared with last year because of Chinese New Year celebrations, the administration said.

Trade

Imports and exports in general trade accounted for 51.7% of the total with $73.25 billion, down 25%, or 2.9 percentage points higher than last year. Imports totaled $27.4 billion, a drop of 40.1%. Processing trade totaled $54.2 billion, down 33.8% year over year, accounting for 38.2% of the total imports and exports in January.

Imports and exports by foreign-invested enterprises decreased 32.3% to $74.05 billion, accounting for 52.2% of the total. Imports and exports of state-owned enterprises decreased 34.8% to $31.65 billion, accounting for 22.3% of the total, and the value from collective-owned, private and other types of enterprises dipped 13.8% to $36.1 billion, accounting for 25.5% of the total.

Regions

1) European Union: Bilateral trade totaled $27.93 billion, down 18.7% year over year.

2) United States: Bilateral trade totaled $22.25 billion, down 15.2% year over year.

3) Japan: Bilateral trade totaled $14.5 billion, down 28% year over year.

Imports and exports by Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, the top three traders in China, totaled $36.63 billion, $21.24 billion and $18.13 billion, a drop of 31.1%, 32.2% and 29.5%, respectively.

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