Despite external challenges, China's foreign trade demonstrated solid performance, structural improvements and resilience in the first two months of 2025, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Friday.

Total goods trade value reached 6.54 trillion yuan (about 912.07 billion U.S. dollars) during this period, reflecting a moderate decrease of 1.2 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Lyu Daliang, director of the GAC's Department of Statistics and Analysis, said China's foreign trade remained "generally stable" in the January-February period, as various regions and departments actively responded to adverse effects resulting from the external environment.

After excluding the impact of incomparable factors, China's total goods imports and exports grew by 1.7 percent year on year in the first two months of 2025, fully demonstrating the resilience of China's foreign trade development, Lyu noted.

Exports rose 3.4 percent from the same period last year to reach 3.88 trillion yuan, while imports dropped by 7.3 percent to 2.66 trillion yuan, the data revealed.

China's exports continued to show structural improvements in the first two months. Exports of mechanical and electrical products, which accounted for 60 percent of the total export value, rose 5.4 percent to reach 2.33 trillion yuan during this period.

Improvements in production and demand in the domestic manufacturing sector, meanwhile, spurred growth in imports of related products in the first two months of 2025, the GAC said.

Lyu also highlighted that as the pace of work and production resumption accelerated following the Spring Festival holiday, the Purchasing Managers' Index rebounded to the expansion zone in February.

Sectors such as general equipment and electrical machinery and equipment experienced a notable acceleration in both production and demand, driving an increase in imports of related products, he added.

Friday's data also showed that the innovation capabilities of China's private enterprises had continued to strengthen in early 2025. In the first two months, the total goods trade value of private enterprises totaled 3.69 trillion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 2 percent.

This figure represents 56.4 percent of China's total foreign trade value during the period. Notably, imports and exports of high-tech products by private enterprises amounted to a combined 624 billion yuan, accounting for almost half of the total trade value of such products.

ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner in the first two months of 2025. During this period, trade between China and ASEAN countries reached a total of 1.03 trillion yuan -- or 15.8 percent of China's overall trade value, the GAC said. 

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