CHINA’S foreign trade maintained swift growth in the first eight months of 2026, with both exports and imports posting solid gains, and import growth continuing to outpace exports, official data showed on Tuesday. The country’s total goods imports and exports rose 17.6 per cent year on year to 34.78 trillion yuan (about US$5.13 trillion) in the January-August period, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
The growth rate was 0.3 percentage points faster than that recorded in the first seven months of the year. Exports increased 14.6 per cent year on year to 20.17 trillion yuan, while imports expanded by 22 per cent to 14.61 trillion yuan, the data revealed.
In August alone, China’s goods trade totalled 4.65 trillion yuan, up 19.8 per cent from a year earlier and remaining above the 4-trillion-yuan mark for a sixth consecutive month.
Exports grew 18.6 per cent year on year in August, while imports rose by 21.7 per cent. Both exports and imports registered double-digit growth for a fourth straight month, and import growth exceeded that of exports for a sixth successive month. The strength of China’s exports has been underpinned by firm overseas demand, particularly for high-tech and artificial intelligence (AI)-related products.
In the first eight months of 2026, exports of mechanical and electrical products rose 21.9 per cent to 12.91 trillion yuan, while exports of integrated circuits surged 95.4 per cent year on year to 1.77 trillion yuan, GAC data showed. By contrast, exports of labour-intensive products edged down 0.6 per cent in this period. — Xinhua