The National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday that exports to the United States - China's largest export market - reached US$29.87 billion during the first half, an increase of 19.3 percent from a year ago.

The U.S. dollar has fallen 12 percent against the Japanese yen in the last three months and dropped 13 percent against the South Korean won, making Chinese goods a good buy. The yuan is partly pegged to the U.S. dollar as well, another reason for the surge in exports.

"The U.S. economy made a sound recovery in the first half after last year's terrorist attacks, greatly boosting domestic demand," said Zhou Dunren, an economics professor at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.

However, imports from the United States fell 3.3 percent during the same period from a year ago.

Exports were valued at US$142.06 billion for the first half - up 14.1 percent year-on-year. Imports during the same period reached US$128.65 billion, a rise of 10.4 percent from the same period last year.

Trade surplus was US$13.41 billion - an increase of US$53.9 billion from a year ago, the bureau said. However, Zhou warned the confidence in the U.S. market could be shattered following the recent spate of scandals in that country, which are likely to hurt exporters.

Exports to Japan, China's largest trade partner, and the European Union were sluggish.

China exported US$21.63 billion worth of goods to Japan during the first half of the year, which was a marginal rise from a year ago. Exports to the EU were valued at US$21 billion, a modest 6.1 percent growth.

Zhou said the weak economies in Japan and the EU led to poor demand in those countries. Trade barriers also played a part in curbing Chinese exports, particularly textiles and farm produce, he said.

Exports to Hong Kong reached US$26.11 billion, up 21.7 percent year-on-year.

Foreign-funded companies contributed more than half of China's total exports. Goods worth US$73.45 billion were exported by China-based overseas com-panies, an increase of 17.9 percent from a year ago. That accounted for 51.7 percent of the total ex-ports volume.

The bureau also an-nounced the country's half-year retail sales yesterday.

Domestic retail sales reached 1.95 trillion yuan in the six-month period, up 8.6 percent from a year ago.

Retail sales in urban areas jumped 9.7 percent year-on-year to 1.23 trillion yuan, while those in rural areas rose 6.7 percent to 715.7 billion yuan. Food sales increased 12 percent from a year ago and clothing sales rose by 10.4 percent.

Telecommunications equipment, automobiles, construction materials as well as furniture were among the retail goods that reported the highest growth.

(eastday.com July 19, 2002)