According to Customs Statistics, in the first quarter of 2008, imports and exports of China, in general trade experienced an boost of 35.4 percent by reaching nearly US $270.53 billion.
From the total, exports fetched $136.63 billion, a rise of 26.4 percent, however it decreased 5.5 percentage points from the increase that was experienced in 2007. On the other hand, the country imported goods worth $133.9 billion, depicting a rise of 46.1 percent, 23.5 percentage points greater than the Q1 of 2007 creating a trade surplus of $2.73 billion.
Over the same period, export growth of processing trade dropped significantly. In the first quarter, imports and exports stood for $241.15 billion, an increase of 14 percent, a drop of 4.8 percentage points when compared to same period last year.
Out of which, exports generated revenue of around $152.65 billion, a slight growth of 14.8 percent, but 9.2 percentage points lower than the same time of 2007. The country imported items worth $88.5 billion, a rise of 12.6 percent, and 1.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
In the first quarter,import and export trade growth of foreign-invested enterprises remained stable and the same for state-owned enterprises showed a strong growth.
In the first quarter, revenue earned by foreign-invested enterprises reached almost $320.5 billion, an increase of 18.8 percent, accounting for 56.2 percent of the total trade value, however a fall of 2.8 percentage points can be observed from the same time last year.