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Commerce official says China set to boost imports

CHINA sent out a clear message today that the time was right for the country to vigorously boost imports.

Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said at the China Imports Forum held in Shanghai that the era of depending heavily upon exports had come to an end, and China had to pursue balanced trade under the current global economic climate.

"We used to stress exports as an important source of our economic growth, but the conditions have changed. We now should seek more balanced trade and transform imports into another power to drive ahead our economy," Zhong told the forum, which summoned senior commerce officials across the country.

China's imports staged strong growth over the past two years when exports were affected by waning global demand amid the economic crisis.

Last year, China's imports jumped 38.7 percent from a year earlier to US$1.39 trillion, while exports increased 31.3 percent to US$1.58 trillion. This helped to reduce the trade surplus to around US$190 billion, down 6.4 percent from a year earlier.

The proportion of the surplus among the total trade value thus declined to 6.2 percent in 2010 from 11.6 percent in 2008 and 8.9 percent in 2009, indicating a more balanced trade structure.

Stronger import growth continued this year. In the first eight months, China's imports climbed 30.2 percent year-on-year to US$1.13 trillion – faster than exports, which rose 24.5 percent.



 

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