Data Watch on China’s Foreign Trade and Investment in the First Three Quarters of 2011

China’s foreign trade in the first three quarters of 2011According to statistics of the Customs， China’s exports and imports in the first nine months of the year reached US$2.67744 trillion， up 24.6% over the same period last year. Specifically， exports stood at US$1.39227 trillion， up 22.7% year on year; imports US$1.28517 billion， up 276.7%.In September alone， China’s imports and exports registered US$324.83 billion， up 18.9% from the same period of last year. Specifically， exports reached US$169.67 billion; imports reached US$155.16 billion.China’s foreign trade in the first nine months of 2011 has the following features.Imports continued to increase faster than exports. In September， exports and imports increased 17.1% and 20.9% respectively， 8.0 percentage points and 3.2 percentage points lower than the same period of last year respectively. Imports increased 3.8 percentage points faster than exports. From January to September， the increase rates of exports and imports were 11.3 percentage points and 15.7 percentage points lower than the same period of last year respectively. Imports increased 4 percentage points faster than exports.Private enterprises saw the fastest growth in import and export volume. From January to September， imports and exports of foreigninvested enterprises registered US$1.36891 trillion， an increase of 18.4% and accounting for 51.1% of China’s total trade volume. Imports and exports of State-owned enterprises stood at US$569.14 billion， an increase of 23.8%. Imports and exports of private enterprise reported US$739.39 billion， an increase of 38.7%， 20.3 percentage points and 14.9 percentage points than those of the foreign-invested enterprises and State-owned enterprises respectively.Prices of bulk commodities imports were volatile at high levels. Due to the impact of global excess liquidity， instability in the Middle East and North Africa， the Japan earthquakes and other factors， the prices of bulk commodity imports rose sharply， leading to the rapid growth of the value of imports. From January to September， the average import price rose 14.8%， and the average import volume rose 10.3%. The import prices of crude oil， iron ore， oil products， natural rubber and edible vegetable oil went up 37.7%， 35.4%， 34.1%， 61.9% and 38% respectively over the same period of last year， with the import volume up 43.2%， 50.3%， 52.4%， 74% and 30.7% respectively.Trade surplus continued to decline. In September， the trade surplus was US$14.51 billion， down 12.4% from the same period of last year， 2.3 percentage points higher than that of August. Specifically， general trade deficit stood at US$10.07 billion， an increase of 102.9%; processing trade surplus stood at US$33.92 billion， an increase of 10.2%. From January to September， the trade surplus was US$107.1 billion， down 10.6% from the same period of last year. Specifically， general trade deficit stood at US$67.57 billion， an increase of 80.4%; processing trade surplus stood at US$263.92 billion， up 17%. China’s trade surplus with the United States and the European Union increased 9.7% and 5.3% respectively; its deficits with ASEAN， Australia， Brazil and the Republic of Korea increased 54.5%， 47.5%， 44.2% and 10.5% respectively.According to statistics of the Ministry of Commerce， in the first three quarters China signed US$28.64 billion worth of service-outsourcing contracts， an increase of 67.8% over the same period of last year， and US$1.24 billion more than the total number of last year. US$20.01 billion worth of the contracts were performed， an increase of 65.7% year on year， and US$2.07 billion more than the total number of last year. In the same period， China signed US$20.02 billion worth of international serviceoutsourcing contracts， an increase of 69.8% over the same period of last year， and US$1.09 billion more than the total number of last year. US$14.51 billion worth of the contracts were performed， an increase of 65.6% year on year， and US$700 million more than the total number of last year.Utilization of foreign investmentFrom January to September， China approved the establishment of over 20，400 new foreign-invested enterprises， an increase of 6.24% year on year. Paid-in foreign capital was valued at US$86.679 billion， up 16.6% year on year. In September alone， paid-in foreign capital amounted to US$9.045 billion， up 7.88% from the previous year.The service sector continued to receive the largest amount of foreign investment among all sectors. From January to September， the sectors of agriculture， forestry， animal husbandry， and fisheries made an actual use of US$1.387 billion in foreign investment， an increase of 10.18% year on year. The manufacturing industry made an actual use of US$39.965 billion in foreign investment， an increase of 12.97% over the same period of last year. The service sector made an actual use of US$40.192 billion in foreign investment， an increase of 20.13% year on year and accounting for 46.37% of the nation’s total. Among the service sector， such industries as comprehensive technical service， special machinery equipment repair， wholesales， retail， tourism and transportation saw an increase of over 60% in their utilization of foreign investment. The real estate sector saw an increase of only 13.29% in its utilization of foreign investment， 6.84 percentage points lower than that of the overall service sector.Investment from Asian nations continued to increase; investment from European nations declined; the decline of investment from the United State slowed down. From January to September， paid-in capital from the ten Asian nations or regions (Hong Kong， Macao， Taiwan， Japan， Philippines， Thailand， Malaysia， Singapore， Indonesia， and South Korea) was valued at US$65.323 billion， an increase of 23.66% year on year. Paid-in capital from the United States declined 9.88% from a year ago to US$1.877 billion. Paid-in capital from the 27 European Union nations amounted to US$4.184 billion， down 1.8% from the previous year.Actual use of foreign investment in central and eastern China saw rapid growth， while that in western China saw slower increase. From January to September， the eastern regions made an actual use of US$74.357 billion in foreign investment， an increase of 16.24% from a year ago， 0.36 percentage points lower than the nation’s average. The central regions made an actual use of US$5.995 billion， an increase of 27.21% from a year ago， 10.61 percentage points higher than the nation’s average. The western regions made an actual use of US$6.327 billion in foreign investment， an increase of 11.85% year on year， 4.75 percentage points lower than the nation’s average.Overseas investment and economic cooperationChina’s outbound FDI From January to September， China’s domestic investors invested directly in a total of 2，526 overseas enterprises in 129 nations and regions， with a total of non-financial outbound FDI of US$40.75 billion， an increase of 12.5% year on year.The investment mainly went to Hong Kong， the Cayman Islands， British Virgin Islands， Australia， Luxembourg， Singapore， the United States and other countries and regions. FDI to Hong Kong was US$22.98 billion， an increase of 29.9% and accounting for 56.4% of China’s total FDI. US$13 billion in FDI was made by local governments and enterprises， accounting for 31.9% of China’s total FDI， an increase of 8.3% over the same period of last year. Jiangsu， Shandong， Zhejiang， Shanghai and Guangdong are among the top in terms of the amount of foreign direct investment.Overseas-contracted projects From January to September， China’s overseas-contracted projects reported a turnover of US$66.66 billion， an increase of 12.4% year on year. US$93.12 billion worth of new contracts were signed， up 12.3% year on year. The top ten nations in terms of the value of newly signed contracts are India， Saudi Arabia， Hong Kong， Vietnam， Angola， Malaysia， Burma， Algeria， Nigeria and Indonesia， with a total contract value of US$36.11 billion， representing 38.8% of the total value of the newly signed contracts. The top industries in terms of the value of newly signed contracted are power industry， real estate and construction， transportation， electronic communications， petrochemical， manufacturing and processing. By the end of September this year， China had signed a total of US$792.5 billion worth of overseas project contracts and realized a total turnover of US$502.2 billion.Foreign labor service cooperation From January to September， the number of all kinds of labor sent abroad was 308，000， an increase of 26，000 year on year. The major destinations of Chinese labor exports are Japan， Singapore， Macao， the Republic of Korea， Angola， Algeria， Saudi Arabia， Hong Kong， Russia， Burma， etc. By the end of September this year， China had sent abroad a total of 5.74 million labor service personnel of all types on an accumulative basis.(Source: Press conference of the Ministry of Commerce of China on October 19th)