Briefly

Xiamen sees record first-half trade

During the first half of this year, foreign trade of Xiamen in East China's Fujian province topped 444.32 billion yuan ($65.8 billion), up 8.3 percent year-on-year, setting a new record for import and export value for the first half of the year, according to local Customs. Combined imports of the coastal city amounted to 218.37 billion yuan while exports came in at 225.95 billion yuan, rising 3.2 percent and 13.6 percent year-on-year, respectively. Major export items included mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive goods, while main imported goods during the period were mechanical and electrical items and agricultural products.

Travel expo resumes in Kunming after hiatus

The 2022 China International Travel Mart kicked off on Friday in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, after a hiatus of one year due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Exhibitors from 71 countries and regions are attending the event online or offline, and officials from embassies and consulates of 31 countries have also joined the expo, according to the organizers. The three-day travel fair, with an exhibition area of 80,000 square meters, features various exhibition zones comprising seven themes, including culture and museums, overseas tourism and Yunnan tourism.

Reverse repos add 3b yuan to liquidity

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, on Friday conducted 3 billion yuan ($444.3 million) of seven-day, 2.1 percent reverse repos to maintain stable liquidity in the banking system. A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

Commerce in cultural products up in 2021

China's foreign cultural trade grew nearly 39 percent to over $200 billion in 2021. This is the first time the figure exceeded that mark, said the Ministry of Commerce, which coordinated with 26 other government departments to issue a guideline to promote the high-quality development of foreign cultural trade. The guideline helped the industry to grasp new opportunities brought by the digital economy.

Xinhua - China Daily