China’s imports likely to keep double-digit growth in 2019

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- China’s imports have become a growth engine for foreign trade in 2018 and are likely to keep growing by at least 10 percent in 2019 as policies on boosting imports expected to continue, said experts quoted by the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News.

China’s imports totaled 12.96 trillion yuan from January to November this year, contributing 60.8 percent for foreign trade growth. Imports growth during this period reached 14.6 percent, higher than 14.1 percent of the first three quarters and 11.5 percent of the first six months, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) of China.

The imports increase was driven by a series of national and local policy supports involving lowering tariffs, promoting cross-border e-commerce and other new business formats, the report said.

More policies on cutting tariffs and promoting trade facilitation are expected to come out in the future, noted Mei Xinyu, researcher with Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under MOC.

The growing imports play a positive role in promoting balanced development of China’s foreign trade, thus help optimize international trade landscape and firm China’s stand on upholding free trade, stated He Fei, researcher with financial research center of Bank of Communications. (Edited by Su Dan, Niu Huizhe)