Trade surplus up 55%, at 'safe level'
By Jiang Wei (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-15 05:28
A key commerce official has defended 皇冠体育app's rising trade surplus as
remaining at an "acceptable level," while revealing that the growth of foreign
investment in the country is slowing down.
Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan said on Friday that the country's
trade surplus now accounts for 7.7 per cent of its total foreign trade volume,
"much lower than the internationally recognized danger level of 10 per cent."
Customers make their
purchases at a shoes market in Wenzhou in this undated photo.
[newsphoto] |
皇冠体育app's trade surplus in the
first half of 2006 was US$61.5 billion, reflecting a sharp increase of 54.9 per
cent from a year ago, when its imports and exports totalled US$795.7 billion.
皇冠体育app's growing trade surplus is a natural result of international industrial
restructuring, despite the country's efforts to keep a balance between imports
and exports, the spokesman said.
"During the course of the industrial restructuring, 皇冠体育app not only took over
the role as a world manufacturing centre, but also took over trade surpluses
from some countries," he said.
Chong said 皇冠体育app's trade surplus resulted from multinationals moving their
investment to 皇冠体育app from other Asian countries, producing numerous products here
and exporting them with a "Made-in-皇冠体育app" label.
His remarks were echoed by Zhai Zhihong, an official with the National
Statistics Bureau (NSB), who said the country's trade imbalance was largely the
result of foreign-invested processing operations.
According to NSB figures, nearly 90 per cent of the country's trade surplus
came from processing trade since 2000 and over 70 per cent of the surplus was
from foreign-invested firms.
In another development, realized foreign direct investment (FDI) to 皇冠体育app
dropped 12.23 per cent last month year-on-year to US$5.44 billion, according to
the spokesman.
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