Briefly

Shandong Jan-March foreign trade rises

Shandong province saw its foreign trade grow 13.7 percent year-on-year to 710.7 billion yuan ($111.5 billion) in the first quarter, local authorities said. Exports reached 417.9 billion yuan, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, while imports hit 292.7 billion yuan, up 3.4 percent. Shandong's two-way trade with major trade partners maintained growth in the first three months.

Industrial capacity utilization rate at 76%

China's industrial capacity utilization rate came in at 75.8 percent in the first quarter, down 1.4 percentage points from the previous year, said the National Bureau of Statistics. Among the three major sectors, the mining sector's utilization rate stood at 77 percent, increasing 1.7 percentage points from the same period in 2021, the NBS said. The utilization rate of manufacturing came in at 75.9 percent while that of the production and supply of utilities stood at 73.8 percent.

PBOC conducts reverse repos

China's central bank on Tuesday conducted 10 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) of reverse repos to maintain liquidity in the banking system. The interest rate for the seven-day reverse repos was set at 2.1 percent, according to the People's Bank of China. The move aims to keep liquidity in the banking system reasonably stable, the central bank said.

Xinhua