China's foreign trade in the first quarter of this year rose 7.7 percent year-on-year to US$122.06 billion, according to statistics released on Thursday from the General Administration of Customs.
These figures show that China achieved a favorable trade balance of US$7.26 billion from January to March this year, with US$64.66 billion worth of exports and US$57.4 billion of imports, up 9.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.
In March alone, China's total trade increased 5.8 per cent over the same period last year to US$46.33 billion, with US$23.82 billion in exports and US$22.51 billion in imports.
Figures show that the processing trade and exports of joint venture enterprises were on the rise, and exports of machinery and electronic goods accounted for 47.7 per cent of total exports.
In the meantime, imports of crude oil, timber and paper pulp saw a sharp increase in the first three months of this year.
(China Daily April 12, 2002)
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