Review of China’s Foreign Trade in the First Quarter of 2025

April 14, 2025

( The Chinese version shall prevail. )

 

According to Customs statistics, China’s foreign trade in goods in the first quarter of 2025 reached RMB10.3 trillion, up by 1.3% year-on-year. Exports grew by 6.9% to RMB6.13 trillion and imports decreased by 6% to RMB4.17 trillion.

The details are as follows:

1. Growth rate of imports and exports rebounded month by month. In the first quarter, China’s imports and exports volume surpassed RMB10 trillion for eight consecutive quarters, reaching a new record high compared with the same period of the previous years. Monthly speaking, imports and exports declined by 2.2% in January, remained stable in February and rebounded with a 6% growth in March.

2. Private enterprises accounted for a growing share of total imports and exports. In the first quarter, imports and exports of China’s private enterprises rose by 5.8% to RMB5.85 trillion, accounting for 56.8% of the country’s total, 2.4 percentage points higher over the same period last year. Foreign-invested enterprises marked RMB2.99 trillion in imports and exports, up by 0.4% year-on-year, accounting for 29% of the country’s total.

3. Imports and exports with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries grew faster than the overall foreign trade. In the first quarter, China’s trade with BRI partner countries totaled RMB5.26 trillion, up by 2.2%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall trade growth, accounting for 51.1% of China’s total foreign trade. China’s trade with ASEAN scored RMB1.71 trillion, up by 7.1% year-on-year.

4. Imports and exports of electro-mechanical products saw rapid growth. In the first quarter, imports and exports of electro-mechanical products increased by 7.7% to RMB5.29 trillion. Exports of household appliances, laptops, and electronic components grew rapidly, while imports of parts of automatic data processing machines, ships and marine engineering equipment also saw a rapid growth.