According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China on Thursday, China's total foreign trade from January to November 2023 was 37.96 trillion yuan (5.3 trillion US dollars), consistent with the same period last year.

In the past 11 months, China's exports have reached 21.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.3%, while imports have reached 16.36 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.5%. The trade surplus was 5.24 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.8%.

According to customs statistics, in November alone, China's total import and export value reached 3.7 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.

Growth in imports and exports to ASEAN and imports from the European Union. In the first 11 months, ASEAN was China's largest trading partner, with a total trade value of 5.8 trillion yuan between China and ASEAN, an increase of 0.1%, accounting for 15.3% of China's total foreign trade value. During the same period, the European Union was China's second largest trading partner, importing 1.81 trillion yuan from the EU, an increase of 5%; The United States is China's third largest trading partner, and Japan is China's fourth largest trading partner. Over the same period, China's imports and exports to countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road" totaled 17.65 trillion yuan, up 2.6%.

The import and export of private enterprises have maintained growth. In the first 11 months, the import and export of private enterprises reached 20.24 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.1%, accounting for 53.3% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Among them, exports reached 13.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.3%, accounting for 63% of the total export value; Imports reached 6.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6%, accounting for 40.5% of the total import value.

Mechanical and electrical products account for nearly 60% of exports, with an increase in exports of mobile phones and automobiles. In the first 11 months, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 12.66 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.8%, accounting for 58.6% of the total export value. Among them, mobile phones amounted to 885.25 billion yuan, an increase of 3.3%; Automobiles amounted to 652.92 billion yuan, an increase of 79.6%.

In addition, the import volume of major commodities such as iron ore, crude oil, coal, natural gas, and soybeans has increased. In the first 11 months, China imported 1.078 billion tons of iron ore sand, an increase of 6.2%.