China's Trade May 2023

According to data from China's General Administration of Customs of June 7, expressed in yuan, China's international trade with the rest of the world grew by 4.7 percent in the first five months of 2023, while for customs data expressed in dollars, there was a negative trend in both exports (-7.5 per cent) and imports (-4.5 per cent) and aggregate trade (-6.2 per cent).

China confirms the ASEAN region as its first partner with USD 377 billion in the first five months of 2023, the European Union (USD 331 billion), and the United States (USD 274 billion).

Trade is growing in particular with the emerging regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Trade expressed in yuan with African countries increased by 16.4 per cent, while trade with the 10 Southeast Asian countries increased by 9.9 per cent, and trade with countries belonging to the Latam region, which includes Mexico, Central America and all of South America recorded an increase of 10.7 per cent.

In relation to data in yuan unaffected by exchange rates, trade with the European Union increased by 3.6 per cent while those with the United States decreased by 5.5 per cent; imports of EU products to China increased the most from France (21.8 per cent), the Netherlands (12.1 per cent) and Italy which grew by 10.2 per cent in Chinese customs data in yuan, above the EU average (5.8 per cent).