A view of a shopping mall in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province File photo: VCG
The General Administration of Customs (GAC) of China said on Monday that the country's imports have huge room for growth, and the massive Chinese market will always be a great opportunity for the world.
China has a population of more than 1.4 billion and more than 400 million middle-income groups, and China has always insisted on expanding high-level opening-up, sharing development opportunities with the world, the GAC said.
China is the world's largest manufacturing country and the second largest consumption market, with a complete range of industries, a complete industrial system, and strong supporting capabilities, a GAC spokesperson noted.
GAC released latest data, showing the country's imports decreased by 6 percent year-on-year to 4.17 trillion yuan ($576.5 billion) in the first quarter of this year.
The growth rate of imports in the first quarter is the result of the combined effect of many factors, with different commodities rising and falling, Lü Daliang, the spokesperson, said.
Among them, due to the decline in international commodity prices, in the first quarter, the average import prices of iron ore and coal in China fell by more than 20 percent, and the average import prices of crude oil and soybeans fell by 5.7 percent and 16.6 percent, respectively. These price factors dragged the overall import growth rate by 2.6 percentage points, the spokesperson noted.
Compared with last year, there were two fewer working days in the first quarter of this year, which also affected the import growth rate by about 2 percentage points.
Lü said that domestic industrial production has grown rapidly, driving the increase in imports of parts and equipment.
In March, China's manufacturing PMI continued to be in the expansion range, and the manufacturing sector continued to gain pace. Among them, the production and demand of industries such as computer communication, electronic equipment, railway, ship aerospace, equipment were high, and the imports of key parts and high-tech equipment required by related industries also increased.
In the first quarter, China's imports of automatic data processing equipment parts and ships and marine engineering equipment shot up by 95.6 percent and 52.5 percent respectively.
Lü noted that China's consumption market has been stable, which has also led to an increase in the import of consumer goods, such as the brisk domestic consumer market during the Spring Festival fully demonstrating the vitality of China's consumer sector.
In the first quarter, the import of some livelihood commodities increased, such as the import value of edible oil increasing by 12.1 percent, and the import volume of dried and fresh fruits and vegetables growing by 8.3 percent.
Official data showed that China has maintained the position as the world's second largest importer for 16 consecutive years, with an average annual growth rate of 5.4 percent, and the global import share has steadily increased from 7.9 percent to 10.5 percent now.
In the foreseeable future, China's import growth room remains huge, and the large Chinese market is always a great opportunity for the world, Lü said.
Global Times
