Performance of China’s foreign trade sector in the first two months of 2011
According to the Statistics of China Customs, China’s import and export in the first two months of 2011 totaled US$495.83 billion, up by 28.3%. In detail, the export reached US$247.47 billion, up by 21.3%; and the import totaled US$248.36 billion, up by 36.0%. In February alone, China’s total export and import reached US$ 200.78, 10.6% increase year on year. The export was US$96.74 billion, up by 2.4% and import US$104.04 billion, increased by 19.4%, and thus there was a deficit of US$7.31 billion, which was China’s first monthly trade deficit since last March. The features of the China’s export and import in the first two months are as follows:
1. The growth rate of import and export fell sharply and the price hiked apparently. Owing to the influence of Spring Festival holiday, the growth rate of import and export of China fell by 34.8% year on year, with the export and import falling respectively by 43.3% and 25.6%. And the average price for export went up by 11.6%, with the growth rate reaching the record high since March in 2008, and average price for import up by 16.7%, a record high in last 8 months.
2. China’s export to European and American market declined much, while the export to the emerging markets kept stable increase. In February, China’s export to the EU fell by 8.1%, with the growth rate 10.5% lower than the average rate, and the export to the US fell by 3.6%, 0.6% lower than the average rate. China kept rapid increase of export to the emerging market countries. In the first two months, China’s export to South Korea, India, Russia and Brazil increased respectively by 30.6%, 46%, 37.2% and 34.6%.
3. The general trade deficit increased drastically while the export in processing trade category kept stable growth. In February, the export in general trade category totaled US$41.67 billion, down by 4.8%, while the import in the category was US$60.49, up by 25.1%. The deficit in general trade category was US$18.82 billion, up by 3.1 times. The export in processing trade category totaled US$47.96 billion, increased by 9.6%, 7.2% higher than the average growth rate, while the import in the category was US$28.41 billion, up by 8%, 11.4% lower than the average growth rate.
On China’s inbound FDI in the first two months
In the first two months of 2011, China has approved the establishment of 3399 foreign invested companies, increased by 7.46% year on year. The actually utilized FDI recorded US$17.823 billion, increased by 27.9% year on year. The major characteristics are as follows:
1. The FDI actually utilized in service industry is increased faster than in manufacturing industry. In the first two months of 2011, the FDI actually utilized in manufacturing reached US$8.37billion, increased by 24.3% year on year, and down by 1.05% of its share in China’s total amount of actually utilized FDI. The FDI actually utilized in service industry is US$8.3 billion, increased by 34.5% year on year, and occupying 46.6% of China’s total amount of actually utilized FDI up 26% year on year. The FDI utilized in the service sector mainly concentrate in distribution service, financial service industry, transportation service industry, computer application industry as well as production and supply of power, coal gas and water. Besides the FDI actually utilized in property industry is US$4.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 50.5%.
2. The FDI introduced in the west of China is increased faster than in the east and middle area of China. In the first 2 months of 2011, the FDI actually utilized in the western area is US$1.22 billon, an increased of 104.7% year on year. This growth rate is much higher than that of the same period last year, 4 times of the average growth rate nationwide. the FDI actually utilized in the east of China in the first two months is US$15.4 billion, increased by 23.4% year on year, in the middle area of China is US$1.2 billion, increased by 26.7% year on year.
3. The FDI from 10 countries(regions) in Asia to China had apparent increases. In the first two months, 10 countries (regions) in Asia including HK, Macau, Taiwan Province, Japan, Philippine, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea set up 2,694 new companies, increased by 10.59% compared with the same period

of last year, and their actual investment was US$14.981 billion, an increase of 31.33% year on year.
On China’s outbound FDI and overseas economic cooperation
China’s outbound FDI
According to the statistics of MOFCOM, in the first two months of 2011, the investors in China had directly invested in 680 companies in 88 countries and regions. The accumulated non-financial outbound FDI reached US$5.27 billion, increased by 13.1%. By the end of Feb. 2011, China’s accumulated non-financial FDI had amounted to US$264 billion.
Contract projects abroad
In the first two months, the turnover of China’s contract projects abroad was US$9.88 billion, increased by 5.5% year on year. The new contract value reached US$17.76 billion, down 5% year on year.
Foreign labor service cooperation
In the first two months of 2011, China had sent 56,000 labors abroad, 7000 more than that of the same period of last year. In detail, the labors sent for working at contract project abroad were 34,000 people and 22,000 labors were for labor service cooperation.
West Asia and North Africa is the major market for China’s contract foreign projects. The political upheaval in this area recently had affected the operation of China’s contract foreign projects to some extent. In the first two months, the new contract projects in Africa valued at US$3.47 billion, declined by 53.2% year on year. And the turnover of the projects was US$3.96 billon, a slight increase of 3.8% year on year. China’s contract value in Libya declined by 45.3% and the turnover down by 13.9%. In Nigeria, the two numbers were respectively 97.1% and 10.7%, and 54.2% and 42.8% respectively in UAE. At the end of February, China’s labors in Africa was 28,000 less than that of the same period last year.
Note: All the information is sourced from the Press Conference of Ministry of Commerce of China(MOFCOM) on March 22.