China's foreign trade demonstrated solid performance and resilience in the first two months of 2025, overcoming external challenges such as slow global economic recovery and tighter trade restrictions, said a spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
At a press conference in Beijing, Fu Linghui, the spokesman, highlighted that despite global economic headwinds, China's foreign trade has maintained steady growth.
"Under the complex external environment, China's imports and exports slightly declined due to non-comparable factors such as reduced working days. However, when excluding these factors, China's trade has maintained steady growth. In the first two months, China's total imports and exports decreased by 1.2 percent year on year. According to customs data, excluding non-comparable factors, imports and exports grew by 1.7 percent. Among these, exports continued to show growth, with key products such as electromechanical goods performing particularly well, highlighting the strong international competitiveness and resilience of Chinese products in a challenging global environment," Fu said.
Fu noted positive growth in trade with key partners, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States, further demonstrating China's robust international trade relationships.
"In the first two months, China's imports and exports with the ASEAN grew by 4 percent year on year. Despite facing constraints such as tariff increases, the complementary nature of China-U.S. trade continues to emerge, and trade in goods remains strong. In the first two months, China's imports and exports with the United States grew by 3.5 percent year on year," Fu said.
Private enterprises have also been a driving force behind China's foreign trade expansion.
"From this year's situation, private enterprises, facing the complex changes in the international market, have actively responded to the challenges and adjusted their strategies by proactively exploring new fields in foreign trade, which has shown positive results. In the first two months, the imports and exports of private enterprises grew by 2 percent year on year, better than the overall foreign trade situation," Fu noted.
Meanwhile, the export performance of China's electromechanical products was particularly strong, with products such as integrated circuits and automobiles continuing to show growth.
"In the first two months, China's exports of electromechanical products grew by 5.4 percent year on year, with exports of automatic data processing equipment and its parts growing by 11.7 percent, integrated circuit exports increasing by 13.2 percent, and automobile exports rising by 3.7 percent," Fu added.
Looking ahead, Fu emphasized that China's foreign trade has a solid foundation for continued growth.
"As for the future development, China's foreign trade is large in scale and stable in foundation. It is the world's largest goods trader and the second-largest service trade country. China's diverse and stable economic and trade relations have continued to expand, and it has become the major trade partner of over 150 countries. The space for foreign trade development is vast. At the same time, China's industrial system is complete, and its supporting capacity is strong. 'Made in China' is increasingly recognized worldwide, and foreign trade enterprises are actively participating in international market division and cooperation. New growth points such as green trade and digital trade are continuously emerging, which will support the development of China's foreign trade," Fu said.
China's foreign trade shows solid performance, resilience despite headwinds: official
