China News Service, Beijing, October 19 (Duan Xiujian) The National Bureau of Statistics released China’s third quarter economic “report card” on the 19th. China News Service held the "Economic Situation Analysis Meeting for the Third Quarter of 2026" on the same day. Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out at the meeting that the highlights and advantages of China’s foreign trade in the first three quarters will be further enhanced in the fourth quarter.
Overall, in the first three quarters of this year, the total import and export volume of goods was 39,939.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.8%.
Careful analysis shows that from the perspective of total volume data, the import and export of goods in the first three quarters of this year was nearly 40 trillion, which is close to the foreign trade import and export data for the whole year of 2022. The growth rate is so fast that it is relatively rare among the world's major economies. In the past few years, the speed of China's foreign trade development shows that the complementary trade relations between various countries and China are strengthening, which has also brought more strong support to the economic growth of various countries.
Looking at import and export separately, in the first three quarters, exports were 23,197.9 billion yuan, an increase of 16.4%; imports were 16,742 billion yuan, an increase of 22.3%.
He believes that import growth has been faster than exports for many consecutive quarters. The scale of China's imports has been limited to the United States in terms of magnitude. In terms of incremental growth, the gap between the two countries is also narrowing. This shows that China is not only willing to share the super large market, but it is actually happening, bringing benefits to all countries.
In terms of business entities and industrial fields, in the first three quarters, my country's private enterprises imported and exported 22.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.1%, accounting for 56.9% of the total foreign trade value, and continued to maintain their position as the largest foreign trade entity. Exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 23.7%, accounting for 64.3% of total exports.
"The growth vitality of private enterprises is very outstanding," Zhou Mi said. More and more private enterprises are participating in international trade and gaining space for their own development from international trade, which has also brought more vitality to international trade.
In Zhou Mi’s view, exports of mechanical and electrical products are growing rapidly, essentially because countries need Chinese mechanical and electrical products, and Chinese mechanical and electrical products can bring them more support. Accounting for more than 60% of exports, "it shows that we have very deep mutually beneficial relationships with many countries in the field of vertical industries."
Zhou Mi believes that the highlights and advantages of China's foreign trade in the first three quarters will be further enhanced in the fourth quarter. For example, many artificial intelligence products have begun to enter the production stage and have begun to be embedded in the industrial production of many countries. This will form a stronger aggregation effect, scale effect and driving effect, and will further promote related innovation activities. From manufacturing, services to technical cooperation, China's foreign trade development will be supported by stronger momentum in the fourth quarter.
