SHANGHAI, July 21 (Xinhua) -- In the first half of this year, Shanghai's foreign trade grew 11.4 percent year on year to more than 2 trillion yuan (about 280 billion U.S. dollars), marking a record high for this period of the year, said local customs authorities.
Notably, the city's private enterprises contributed more than half of the robust foreign trade growth during the period, suggesting a 20.7-percent year-on-year increase in the sector's imports and exports -- faster than foreign-funded and state-owned enterprises.
It indicates that Shanghai's private sector generated a total import and export value of around 3.54 billion yuan every single day during the period. This demonstrates how the sector has become an important accelerator for the city's continuous foreign trade growth.
Of the total, Shanghai's exports reached more than 846 billion yuan in the first six months of this year, up 15.2 percent year on year, while its imports totaled 1.25 trillion yuan, up 9.1 percent year on year.
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