Foreign Trade
In the first eight months, China's foreign trade volume reached $1.1 trillion, expanding 23.9 percent over the same period last year, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs (see graph 1). Trade surplus stood at $94.65 billion at the end of August.
In August alone, the foreign trade volume rose 29 percent to $162.74 billion, both exports and imports hitting record highs. Of the total, exports surpassed $90 billion for the first time, rising to $90.77 billion, and imports exceeded $70 billion for the first time, reaching $71.97 billion, gaining 32.8 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively, year on year.
From January to August, the total volumes of general trade and processing trade arrived at $476.46 billion and $517.08 billion, respectively, up 24.6 percent and 21.8 percent, over the year-earlier period, respectively.
China's bilateral trade volume with its five largest trading partners, namely, the European Union, the United States, Japan, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Hong Kong, all surpassed $100 billion (see graph 2).
Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing all registered foreign trade volumes of more than $100 billion, with their combined amount accounting for 67.9 percent of the national total (see graph 3).
Machinery and electrical products contributed 56.1 percent to China's total exports. From January to August, their exports were valued at $336.63 billion, shooting up 29.8 percent compared with the same period last year. Of the total, exports of electrical appliances and electronic products, machinery and equipment as well as hi-tech products reached $137.12 billion, $115.3 billion and $169.5 billion, up 34.7 percent, 23.7 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively, year on year. At the same time, exports of clothes and shoes expanded 28.1 percent and 15.4 percent to $59.77 billion and $14.39 billion, respectively.
However, exports of crude oil and refined oil decreased 15.9 percent and 21.7 percent to 4.15 million tons and 8.2 million tons.
During the January-August period, China imported $123.7 billion worth of primary products, surging 31.6 percent from a year ago.
In the first eight months, the country also imported $381.28 billion worth of manufactured goods, up 18.7 percent over the same period last year, with the amount accounting for 75.5 percent of the country's total volume of imports. Of this total, imports of machinery and electrical products were valued at $268.94 billion, increasing 25.5 percent over a year ago, while those of chemical products and related products climbed 8.2 percent to $55.32 billion. During this period, China imported 147,000 automobiles, zooming up 56.1 percent compared with the same period last year.
Finance
In order to strengthen macro-control, the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, raised the benchmark interest rate of deposits and loans in August and financial performance remained sound and stable in this month, said the PBC.
In August, money supply increased more rapidly (see graph 4). A total of 43.3 billion yuan of cash was put into circulation in this month, 27.9 billion yuan more than in the same period last year.
During this month, growth of renminbi loans tended to be controlled. At the end of August, the outstanding renminbi and foreign currency loans of all financial institutions stood at 23.18 trillion yuan, up 15.5 percent compared with the year-earlier period. This was 0.1 percentage point higher than the rate in the prior month and 2.3 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year (see graph 5). Of the total, renminbi loans granted to households and non-financial corporations grew 17.3 percent and 15.9 percent, respectively, year on year.
In August, 187.5 billion yuan of renminbi loans were added to the balance, 2.2 billion yuan less than the figure in the same period last year. Of them, newly increased short-term loans and paper financing stood at 43.3 billion yuan, 75.5 billion yuan less than that in the same period last year, while newly increased middle- and long-term loans grew 74 billion yuan to 143.7 billion yuan.
During this month, the increase of deposits from households began to recover. The month-end outstanding renminbi and foreign currency deposits among all financial institutions arrived at 33.67 trillion yuan, growing 16.9 percent over the year-earlier period, 0.6 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period last year. Of the total, deposits from households stood at 16.42 trillion yuan, edging up 15.3 percent from a year ago, which was 2.1 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period last year. Meanwhile, those from non-financial corporations went up 16.8 percent to 15.12 trillion yuan, 1.9 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period of 2005.
The month-end renminbi savings deposits stood at 15.63 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.2 percent. Thanks to the increase of the benchmark interest rate of deposits, newly increased savings deposits were 30.2 billion yuan more than the figures in the same month last year, arriving at 115 billion yuan in August. Among this total, newly increased demand deposits were 32.1 billion yuan more than those in the same period last year, while newly increased time deposits were 2 billion yuan less than the figure a year ago.
Deposits from non-financial corporations stood at 10.53 trillion yuan at the end of August, gaining 16 percent year on year, 1.1 percentage points higher than the rate in the same period last year. Demand deposits from corporations increased 551.8 billion yuan together in the first eight months, indicating that they had ample funds.
In August, renminbi transactions in the inter-bank market amounted to 3.53 trillion yuan, or 153.6 billion yuan per day. The daily transaction was 48.7 billion yuan, or 46.4 percent more than the figure in the year-earlier period.
As of the end of August, the renminbi exchange rate stood at $1=7.9585 yuan, 147 basis points lower than the previous month. The exchange rate fluctuated 365 basis points throughout the month, the largest range since August 2005.
Corporate Commodity Prices
In August, corporate commodity prices monitored by the PBC inched up 0.5 percent over July and rose 2.9 percent over a year ago (see graphs 6 and 7). Of the total, prices of investment goods rose 0.3 percent from the previous month and 3.5 percent from a year ago while those of consumer goods increased 0.8 percent from July and 1.7 percent year on year.
During this month, prices of agricultural produce went up 1.1 percent over the previous month and grew 4.2 percent from a year ago. Prices of non-ferrous metals climbed 2.3 percent over July and zoomed up 42.3 percent compared with the year-earlier period. Prices of ferrous metals saw a decline of 0.4 percent from the previous month and decreased 6.4 percent from a year ago.
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