Market

Domestic Market

In January， the domestic consumer market remained stable. As this Spring Festival is in February and the consumption summit is delayed， the sales of 5，000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce in January were down 4.7% month on month. The main characteristics are as follows：

Online retail maintained a rapid growth. Among the 5，000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce， the online retail in January was up 37.4% year on year， 6.3 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. Among the traditional retail format， sales of supermarkets remained the same as that of the previous month， but that of department stores， special stores and shopping malls all declined.

Sales of communication products and automobiles sped up. The development of new technologies， new products and new modes of information has promoted the increase of demands for upgrading and consumption of communication products. Among the 5，000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce， sales of communication equipment in January were up 16.2% year on year， 5.8 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. According to the data of China Association of Automobile Manu- facturers， sales of automobiles in January were up 7.6% year on year， 1.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period of 2014.

Consumption of housing and inflation-proof goods picked up. Among the 5，000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce， sales of furniture and building materials in January were up 11.5% and 11.3% respectively， 2.9 and 1.0 percentage points higher than that of last month respectively， and sales of household appliances were up 7.8% month on month. Driven by the demands of the festival， sales of gold， silver and jewelry picked up， with the sales in January up 12.1% month on month.

Growth of consumer prices slowed down. CPI in January was up 0.8% year on year， 0.7 percentage points slower than that of the previous month. According to the monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce， in 36 large and medium-sized cities， prices of agro-foodstuff in January went down 2.3% year on year. Among that， prices of pork， vegetables and mutton were down 7.9%， 6.4% and 5.4% respectively， and that of egg and milk went up 9% and 4.7% respectively.（Source： Ministry of Commerce Website）

Foreign Trade

According to Customs figures， Chinas total import and export in Janu- ary 2015 reached 2.09 trillion yuan， down 10.8% year on year （the same below）. Export was 1.23 trillion yuan， and import 0.86 trillion yuan， down 3.2% and 19.7% respectively. Trade surplus was 369.9 billion yuan， 87.5%. After seasonal adjustment， the reduction of foreign trade， export and import slowed down to 7.1%， 1.3% and 14.4% respectively. In terms of the U.S. dollar， the total import and export in January reached US$ 340.48 billion， down 10.9%， among which， export was US$ 200.26 billion， down 3.3%， and import US$ 140.23 billion， down 19.9%； trade surplus was US$ 60.03 billion ， up 87.6%. The main characteristics of foreign trade in January are as follows.

Export to ASEAN， the U.S. and India remained growth， but import from some of resource-oriented countries declined a lot. In January， Chinas export to ASEAN， India and the U.S. increased 15.6%， 5.1% and 4.9% respectively. While export to Japan， Hong Kong and the EU decreased 20.4%， 10.9% and 4.4% respectively. Due to the downturn of the prices of major international commodities， Chinas import from South Africa， Brazil， India， Australia and Russia was down 42%， 39.8%， 36.2%， 35.2% and 28.7% respectively， making the import growth down 4.8 percentage points.

Decline of general trade was higher than the whole， and export of other trade enjoyed a rapid growth. In January， import and export of general trade reached 1，189.3 billion yuan， down 11.9%， 1.1 percentage points higher than the whole. Among that， import of general trade was down 23.4%， 16.6 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. Import and export of other trade reached 270.9 billion yuan， down 7%， among that， export was up 16.5%. Import and export of processing trade reached 625.7 billion yuan， down 10.3%.

Export of mechanical and electrical products was better than the whole， and the import prices of bulk commodities declined. In January， export of mechanical and electrical products reached 681.0 billion， down 1.3%， 1.9 percentage points slower than that of the whole. Among that， export of integrated circuits， mobile phones and lamps and lanterns up 14.6%， 10.5% and 6.3% respectively. Export of seven kinds of labor intensive products reached 270.1 billion yuan， down 8.5%. Import commodity prices maintained the decrease， with the average price down 16.7%， the largest since 2010. Among that， the import prices of iron ore， crude oil， refi ned oil， soybean and copper products went down 45.2%， 41.1%， 34.6%， 14.6% and 10.9% respectively， 4.1， 14， 2.9， 0.9 and 4.5 percentage points higher than that of the previous month， making the growth of overall import slow down 8.8 percentage points.

Eastern areas witnessed a large decrease， and export of central and western areas increased. In January， import and export of eastern areas reached 1.7439 trillion yuan， down 12%. Among that， export and import was down 4.9% and 19.8% respectively. Import and export of central areas reached 163.0 billion yuan and that of western areas reached 178.9 billion yuan， down 1.3% and 6.3% respectively. Among that， export of central and western areas was up 4.7% and 5.6% respectively， accounting for 19.1% of the national total export volume， 1.5 percentage points higher.

Export of private enterprises increased and import and export of stateowned enterprises and foreign invested enterprises decreased. In January， import and export of private enterprises reached 768.1 billion， down 10.8%. Among that， export was up 1.3% and import down 32.8%， declining for three consecutive months and 26.5 percentage points more than that of the previous month. Import and export of state-owned enterprises reached 368.8 billion， and that of foreign invested enterprises reached 948.9 billion， down 17.9% and 7.6% respectively.（Source： Ministry of Commerce Website）

Textile Industry

In terms of the im/export， China imported yarn， fabrics & textiles of 1，636，792，000 dollars from overseas market， while the export value was 9，716，866，000 dollars， nearly six times of the import value. The import value of textiles reduced by 0.2% while the export declined by 7.7% over the same period of last year. The poorer situation happened to export of apparel and accessories， which suffered a year-on-year falling of 12.5%， with only 15，824，864，000 dollars in January， which even suffered a slight decline over that of December of 2014 of 15，920，373，000 dollars. （Specifi c data refers to the table）