BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- China's eastern coastal city of Ningbo saw its trade with the countries along the Belt and Road routes stand at 95.98 billion yuan (about 13.59 billion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of the year, accounting for 28.1 percent of its overall foreign trade, according to the local customs authority on Wednesday.
In the first five months, value of the city's imports and exports totaled 341.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.9 percent, but the decline narrowed month by month, said Ningbo Customs.
It is worth noting that Ningbo's exports show strong resilience. From January to May, the city's exports amounted to 220.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.4 percent, with a cumulative trade surplus of 99.41 billion yuan. In particular, its exports in May stood at 55.13 billion yuan, an increase of 2.3 percent year-on-year and 9.5 percent month-on-month; with a trade surplus of 29.22 billion yuan.
From the perspective of trading partners, the European Union (excluding the United Kingdom), the United States and ASEAN are still in the top three.
In the first five months, the city's trade with the above three trading partners amounted to 61.87 billion yuan, 54.32 billion yuan and 37.86 billion yuan, respectively, with their combined value accounting for 45.2 percent of the city's total foreign trade value during the period.
Due to the warm-up effect of the CEEC Products Online Fair 2020 held from June 8 to 14, Ningbo's trade with the 17 countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) stood at 2.64 billion yuan in May, an increase of 5 percent.
"It is believed that with the further improvement of the epidemic prevention and control worldwide, the city's foreign trade will further pick up. Orders will also return to various large and small enterprises step by step, and the dawn is ahead," said an official of Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce. (Edited by Hu Pingchao with Xinhua Silk Road, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
