China's exports and imports top $6 tln for the first time in 2021 amid solid economic recovery, effective virus containment

China’s exports and imports topped $6 trillion for the first time in 2021, customs data showed on Friday, as the economy, a global forerunner in containing the COVID-19, continued a solid recovery over the past year.

The country’s foreign trade in US dollar terms stood at $6.05 trillion in 2021, with the reading exceeding the $5 trillion mark before topping $6 trillion within the same year, eight years after the country achieved $4 trillion in foreign trade.

The growth volume in 2021 hits $1.4 trillion, equivalent to the annual foreign trade volume in 2005, according to customs data.

In yuan terms, China’s commodity exports and imports grew by 21.4 percent year-on-year to 39.1 trillion yuan in 2021, with exports up 21.2 percent to 21.73 trillion yuan and imports up 21.5 percent to 17.37 trillion yuan.

The country also posted stellar gains in exports and imports with its major trading partners throughout 2021.

China’s yuan-denominated trade with the ASEAN, its largest trading partner, increased 19.7 percent in 2021, while its trade with the EU and the US, its second and third largest trading partners, rose by 19.1 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively.

Moreover, its trade with economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) grew by 23.6 percent, 2.2 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate, per customs statistics.

China’s exports and imports with BRI economies increased from 6.46 trillion yuan in 2013 to 11.5 trillion yuan in 2021 at an average annual growth rate of 7.5 percent, Li Kuiwen, spokesperson from the General Administration of Customs (GAC), told a press conference in Beijing announcing the latest figures.

In 2021, China’s exports and imports in yuan terms to the 14-member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) were also up 18.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 30.9 percent of the country’s total foreign trade.

In a sign of China’s trade prowess in the digital era, its e-commerce exports and imports, according to Friday’s data, gained 15 percent to 1.98 trillion yuan, with exports up 24.5 percent to 1.44 trillion yuan.

Private businesses, the backbone of the country’s trade juggernaut, also booked 19 trillion yuan in exports and imports last year, an increase of 26.7 percent, 2 percentage points higher than the previous year, making up 48.6 percent of the country’s total, read GAC numbers. Foreign-invested firms tallied 14.03 trillion yuan in exports and imports, a rise of 12.7 percent. State firms, for their part, registered a 27.7 percent increase to 5.94 trillion yuan in exports and imports.

Looking ahead, China’s trade landscape faces rising uncertainty, instability and imbalance amid recurrent waves of the pandemic, meaning the country’s relevant advantage in taking the lead in economic rebound might be weakening, Li said, noting however that the country’s resilience and strong economic fundamentals over the long run won’t change, thereby vigorously underpinning a push to stabilize trade.