China's Export Growth SlowsChina will increase exports to obtain an annual growth rate of eight percent as it's export trade growth slowed down in the first quarter of this year.Gao Yan, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that China's export growth this year has slowed down relatively, despite a stable growth rate compared with last year. She explained that this was due to the low-speed growth status of the global economy, especially the slowdown of the US economy, the downturn of the Japanese economy and devaluation of Japanese yen. China's import and export trade volume totaled 113.81 billion US dollars during the first three months of this year, up 15.9 percent on the previous year. Exports accounted for 59.27 billion US dollars, an increase of 14.7 percent over the same period of last year. Meanwhile, exports to the US rose by 11 percent while the increase rate dropped by 21.8 percent. Gao said that exports increased by as high as 27.8 percent last year, which also brought pressures for a continuing increase this year. China has adopted effective policies, such as increasing the rate of tax refunds on export goods, to overcome the Asian financial crisis and guarantee stable exports since 1998. Gao said that China would try to export more high-tech products this year, especially machinery and electronic products. According to the ministry, China aims to export 120 billion US dollars worth of machinery and electronic products, and 41.5 billion US dollars worth of high-tech products this year, both up by 15 percent. |
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