Action taken to ensure foreign trade growth

Joint result

Li Kuiwen, director-general of the GAC's statistics and analysis department, said those figures showed a stable performance by the nation's foreign trade at the beginning of this year, despite increasingly complex and uncertain external conditions.

This achievement was mainly due to the strong resilience of the Chinese economy, which has long-term healthy fundamentals, as well as the effects of policy measures targeting stable growth, he said.

According to Zhang Jianping, head of the Center for Regional Economic Cooperation at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, or CAITEC, the urgent challenges facing foreign trade this year include a slowdown in global economic recovery due to uncertainties over the pandemic, which is likely to dampen overseas demand for Chinese goods and services.

Persistently high prices for raw materials and transportation will also exert huge pressure on Chinese companies trading overseas, Zhang said, adding that the high comparison base last year also makes it more difficult for the sector to achieve a high level of annual growth.