Learned from the General Administration of Customs, China’s foreign trade reached 2.56 trillion US dollars in value in 2008, up 17.8% compared with 2007, but the growth rate was down 5.7 percentage points. The year-on-year growth rate of China’s foreign trade dropped below 20 percent for the first time in seven years. Exports were up 17.2% to 1.43 trillion US dollars and imports up 18.5% to 1.13 trillion US dollars, but the annual export growth rate slowed by 8.5 and imports by 2.3 percentage points. The trade surplus stood at 295.47 billion US dollars, up 12.5%, a net increase of 32.83 billion US dollars, according to the customs.

Source: China Textile Leader