East China's Yiwu sees more robust commodity-based economy

HANGZHOU - The transaction volume of commodities in the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu, known as the "world supermarket" for its wholesale goods, saw steady growth last year, according to local authorities.

Data from the city's market supervision bureau showed that all the market players in Yiwu achieved a total turnover of almost 150 billion yuan ($24 billion) last year, up 8.9 percent.

The China Commodities City in Yiwu, the world's largest small commodity market, registered a turnover totaling more than 120 billion yuan last year, up 10.9 percent.

Yiwu was home to over 380,000 registered commodity companies and vendors, including foreign ones, by the end of 2017 -- about 77,000 more than the previous year.

According to the city's customs, the total trade volume of Yiwu was 211.3 billion yuan from January to November last year, up 4.4 percent, with exports standing at 208.1 billion yuan, up 4.1 percent, and imports at 3.2 billion yuan, up 34.3 percent.