Trade seen growing 10pc after bright start
The mainland's foreign trade is expected to grow by 10 per cent this year, according to the country's most authoritative news weekly Outlook .
In the first quarter, foreign trade was above expectations considering the economic slump since early last year.
Official statistics showed a 40 per cent jump, with gross imports and exports reaching US$98.2 billion for the three months. Exports rose 39.1 per cent to US$51.7 billion and imports climbed 41 per cent to US$46.5 billion.
The healthy foreign trade figures can be attributed to several factors, says the Outlook article, which was written by Pei Changhong, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Among them was the fact that in the comparative corresponding period last year foreign trade grew only by 0.3 per cent from 1998, Xinhua said.
Meanwhile, export promotion measures taken by the central government had begun to produce desirable results, the article said.
