China's trade with Central Asian countries grows at a fast pace

BEIJING - China's imports from Belt and Road economies increased faster than exports for the first time in 2017, according to a think tank report.

The value of China's imports from economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative stood at $666 billion in 2017, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year, or 39 percent of China's total imports value, according to a report compiled by the State Information Center, a State Council think tank.

In the same year, China's exports to those economies came in at $774.26 billion, a rise of 8.5 percent year-on-year. The growth of imports outpaced exports for the first time since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed five years ago.