Tianjin's Foreign Trade Up in First Seven Months

Tianjin Municipality's exports and imports reached 7.04 billion US dollars in the first seven months of this year, representing a year-on-year increase of 22.5 percent, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs.

A breakdown shows that exports rose 22.7 percent to 3.59 billion dollars and imports grew 22.2 percent to 3.45 billion dollars.

Local economists say the increase indicates that foreign trade in this northern China major port city is recovering from the shadow of an economic crisis that hit most southeast Asian countries since 1997.

Statistics show that of the total exports Tianjin handled in the seven-month period, state-owned enterprises accounted for 971 million dollars, up 25 percent, while solely foreign-funded enterprises accounted for 1.56 billion dollars, up 23.5 percent.

Exports of garments, machinery and electronics, and furniture all increased by a big margin in the January-July period. Furniture exports, mainly to European countries and the United States, reached 138 million dollars, up over 50 percent from a year earlier.