China's 2012 foreign trade to grow 6 pct: minister

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade is expected to increase by around 6 percent year on year in 2012, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said Friday.

The growth will be slower than the annual target of 10 percent set by the government, a figure that officials have conceded will be hard to achieve.

Chen's projection was consistent with the 5.8 percent year-on-year rise in the country's foreign trade in the first 11 months of the year, as the global downturn has impacted the world's largest exporter.

He also estimated that China's use of foreign direct investment will reach about 110 billion U.S. dollars.

That will represent a decline from 116.01 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, a 9.72-percent increase at that time.

Chen said China's outbound direct investment in non-financial sectors will stand at 70 billion U.S. dollars, exceeding last year's 68.58 billion U.S. dollars.

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