Review of China’s Foreign Trade in the First Three Quarters of 2023

October 13, 2023

( The Chinese version shall prevail. )

Facing the volatile and grave external environment and multiple domestic challenges, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, acting on the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, China has saw its economy picking up, made solid progress in high-quality development and maintained the smooth operation of foreign trade with a positive outlook. According to Customs statistics, China’s foreign trade volume in goods in the first three quarters of 2023 reached RMB30.8 trillion, slightly down by 0.2% year-on-year. Exports grew by 0.6% to RMB17.6 trillion and imports decreased by 1.2% to RMB13.2 trillion.

1. Imports and exports in goods increased steadily and registered the highest monthly figure for this year in September. Foreign trade has been expanding quarter on quarter. The import and export values of the first three quarters of 2023 stood at RMB9.72 trillion, RMB10.29 trillion and RMB10.79 trillion. Monthly speaking, imports and exports of September marked RMB3.74 trillion, registered positive month-on-month growth for two consecutive months and the highest monthly figure for this year.

2. Imports and exports of China’s private sector registered a rapid growth. In the first three quarters of 2023, China’s private sector scored RMB16.34 trillion in imports and exports, up by 6.1%, accounting for 53.1% of the country’s total foreign trade volume. Over the same period, foreign-invested enterprises and state-owned enterprises marked RMB9.42 trillion and RMB4.95 trillion in foreign trade, accounting for 30.6% and 16.1% of the total, respectively.

3. Foreign trade with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries outperforms the total trade. In the first three quarters of 2023, China’s trade with BRI partner countries totaled RMB14.32 trillion, up by 3.1%, accounting for 46.5% of China’s total foreign trade. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. To present the achievements in the trade between China and BRI partner countries over the last ten years, we compiled the Trade Index between China and BRI partner countries. It rose to 165.4 points in 2022 compared to 100 points in 2013 as the base period, showing a growing role of the initiative in facilitating trade.

4. The proportion of electro-mechanical products in total exports rose. In the first three quarters of 2023, exports of electro-mechanical products increased by 3.3% to RMB10.26 trillion, taking up 58.3% of the total exports, up by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year. Exports of motor vehicles and their parts, ships, and electrical equipments rose by 48.2%, 26.8% and 16.2%, respectively. Over the same period, exports of labor-intensive products registered RMB3.07 trillion, accounting for 17.5%.

5. Imports of commodities and consumer goods increased. In the first three quarters of 2023, imports of commodities including energy products, metalliferous ores and grain food were up by 16.5%. China imported 860 million tons of energy products including crude oil, natural gas and coal, up by 31.8%; 1.086 billion tons of metalliferous ores including iron ores and aluminium ores, up by 7.8%. Over the same period, imports of consumer goods increased by 3.1% to RMB1.46 trillion. Imports of fresh or dried fruits and nuts and medical and healthcare products increased by 22.8% and 18.5%, respectively.