Foreign Trade

In the first 11 months, China's foreign trade volume reached $1.59 trillion, expanding 24.3 percent over a year ago, 0.8 percentage points higher than the rate in the same period last year, according to statistics released by the General Administration of Customs. The trade surplus stood at $156.52 billion at the end of November.

In November alone, the foreign trade volume rose 26.1 percent to $168.79 billion. Of the total, exports hit $95.86 billion and imports reached $72.93 billion, gaining 32.8 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively, year on year.

From January to November, the total volumes of general trade and processing trade arrived at $678.11 billion and $754.03 billion respectively, up 25.9 percent and 21.5 percent over the year-earlier period, respectively.

China's bilateral trade volume with its major trading partners grew rapidly .

Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing all registered foreign trade volumes of more than $100 billion, with their combined amount accounting for 59 percent of the national total .

Machinery and electrical products contributed 56.7 percent to China's total exports. From January to November, their exports were valued at $496.33 billion, shooting up 29.8 percent compared with the same period last year. Of the total, exports of electrical appliances and electronic products, machinery and equipment as well as hi-tech products reached $205.84 billion, $168.18 billion and $253.87 billion, up 34 percent, 24.9 percent and 30.4 percent, respectively, year on year. At the same time, exports of clothes and shoes expanded 28.3 percent and 15.3 percent to $86.28 billion and $19.8 billion, respectively.

However, exports of crude oil and refined oil decreased 19.7 percent and 14.1 percent to 5.43 million tons and 11.19 million tons, respectively.

During the January-November period, China imported $171.42 billion worth of primary products, up 28.2 percent from a year ago. Specifically, imports of soybeans jumped 7.8 percent to 25.85 million tons.

In the first 11 months, the country also imported $547.1 billion worth of manufactured goods, up 18.5 percent over the same period last year, with the amount accounting for 76.1 percent of the country's total volume of imports. Of this total, imports of machinery and electrical products were valued at $387.63 billion, increasing 23.5 percent over a year ago, while those of chemical and related products were up 10.6 percent to $78.59 billion. During this period, China imported 203,000 automobiles, up 40.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

Finance

Financial performance remained sound and stable in this month, said the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank.

In November, money supply increased more rapidly . A total of 56.3 billion yuan of cash was put into circulation this month, 4.7 billion yuan more than that in the same period last year.

During this month, growth of renminbi loans tended to be controlled. At the end of November, the outstanding renminbi and foreign currency loans of all financial institutions stood at 23.6 trillion yuan, up 14.2 percent compared with the year-earlier period. This was 0.1 percentage points lower than the rate in the prior month but 0.4 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year . Of the total, renminbi loans granted to households and non-financial corporations grew 20.1 percent and 13.9 percent to 3.8 trillion yuan and 18.51 trillion yuan, respectively.

From January to November, 2.97 trillion yuan of renminbi loans were added to the balance, 757.7 billion yuan more than the figure in the same period last year. In November alone, newly increased renminbi loans arrived at 193.5 billion yuan, 31.5 billion yuan less than the figure in the same period last year. Of them, newly increased short-term loans and paper financing stood at 75.4 billion yuan, 65 billion yuan less than that in the same period last year, while newly increased medium and long-term loans grew 31.1 billion yuan to 115.2 billion yuan.

During this month, the increase of deposits from households continued to decline. The month-end outstanding renminbi and foreign currency deposits among all financial institutions arrived at 34.72 trillion yuan, growing 16.4 percent over the year-earlier period, 1.8 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period last year. Of the total, deposits from households stood at 16.76 trillion yuan, up 14.4 percent from a year ago, which was 3.5 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period last year. Meanwhile, those from non-financial corporations went up 15.3 percent to 15.63 trillion yuan, 4 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period of 2005.

The month-end renminbi savings deposits stood at 15.97 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.3 percent. Newly increased savings deposits were 600 million yuan more than the figures in the same month last year, arriving at 168.3 billion yuan in November.

Deposits from non-financial corporations stood at 10.96 trillion yuan at the end of November, gaining 16.6 percent year on year, 1.3 percentage points higher than the rate in the same period last year. Among this total, demand deposits and time deposits increased 218.1 billion yuan and 40.4 billion yuan respectively. Deposits from corporations increased 1.38 trillion yuan together in the first 11 months, indicating that they had ample funds.

In November, renminbi transactions in the inter-bank market amounted to 4.23 trillion yuan, or 192.3 billion yuan per day. The daily transaction was 95 billion yuan, or 97.6 percent more than the figure in the year-earlier period.

Corporate Commodity Prices

In November, corporate commodity prices monitored by the PBC inched up 0.3 percent over October and rose 4.1 percent over a year ago . Of the total, prices of investment goods rose 0.1 percent from the previous month and 4.2 percent from a year ago while those of consumer goods increased 0.8 percent from the prior month and 4.1 percent year on year.

During November, prices of durables remained the same as in October but dropped 0.9 percent from the year-earlier period. Prices of non-ferrous metals decreased 0.7 percent from the prior month but increased 41.1 percent compared with the year-earlier period. Prices of ferrous metals saw a decline of 0.5 percent from the previous month but increased 0.7 percent from a year ago.