General

According to customs data, from January to September 2022, China's total import and export value was 31.11 trillion yuan, up 9.9% over the same period last year. Among them, the total export value reached 17.67 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%; The total import value was 13.44 trillion yuan, up 5.2% year on year.

It can be calculated that China's trade surplus in the first three quarters was 4.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 53.7%.

How about the import and export situation of provinces and cities from January to September?

According to the customs data, in terms of the total import and export value in the first three quarters, Guangdong Province is still far ahead, with the total import and export value reaching 6.1 trillion yuan, which is nearly 2 trillion yuan higher than Jiangsu Province (4.11 trillion yuan), the second largest province, but with only 1.3% year-on-year growth, there is a very obvious slowdown; Zhejiang Province, ranked third, was 3.52 trillion yuan, up 17.6% year on year.

Ranking 4-7 are: Shanghai 3.09 trillion yuan, Beijing 2.65 trillion yuan, Shandong 2.44 trillion yuan, Fujian 1.48 trillion yuan, all more than trillion yuan.

The lowest total import and export value in the first three quarters was 3.134 billion yuan in Qinghai, 3.383 billion yuan in Tibet, and less than 10 billion yuan in both places.

However, in terms of the growth rate of the total import and export value, customs data show that the central and western regions are the fastest growing regions, including Ningxia, Xinjiang and Qinghai, with a year-on-year growth of 66.2%, 55.6% and 51.6% respectively. The growth rate of these three provinces is more than 50%.

The growth rate of import and export value in Jiangxi, Hainan, Tibet, Hubei, Inner Mongolia and other regions exceeded 20%. Overall, the growth rate of 18 provinces and cities exceeded the national average of 9.9%.

In contrast, the total import and export value of Tianjin (- 0.6% growth rate), Jilin (- 1.9%), Guangxi (- 2.1%) and Shanxi (- 18%) was negative.

We know that only strong exports can drive economic growth. According to customs data, in terms of exports of provinces and cities in the previous three quarters, the total export value of five provinces and cities exceeded trillion yuan, namely, Guangdong 3.89 trillion yuan, Jiangsu 2.61 trillion yuan, Zhejiang 2.60 trillion yuan, Shandong 1.48 trillion yuan, and Shanghai 1.25 trillion yuan.

Moreover, Fujian's total export value reached 903.087 billion yuan, ranking sixth; Sichuan, Beijing and Chongqing reached 400 billion yuan, ranking 7-9. From the perspective of the previous three quarters, it is estimated that Shandong's exports in the northern region will only exceed one trillion yuan in the whole year.

The total export value of Gansu, Tibet and Qinghai reached the bottom with less than 10 billion yuan.

Customs data display. In terms of export growth, the growth rate of 18 provinces and cities exceeded the national growth rate by 13.8%. The export growth rate of the central and western regions was the fastest, and most of the provinces and cities grew by more than 20%. Among them, Tibet and Qinghai doubled, with year-on-year growth of 128.1% and 103.8% respectively; Hainan ranked third with a year-on-year growth of 97.7%.

Among the top five regions in terms of total exports, only Zhejiang (20.1%) and Shandong (20.8%) exceeded the national growth rate by 20%. In addition, there are three provinces with negative growth, namely Guizhou - 4.8%, Beijing - 8.7% and Shanxi - 12.5%.

Compared with exports, the growth rate of imports from January to September remained stable. It is worth mentioning that in the first three quarters, Beijing was still a major importer of goods, with a total import value of up to 2.23 trillion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 25.6%, exceeding Guangdong's 2.22 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 5.6%.

From January to September, Shanghai's total import value was 1.84 trillion yuan and Jiangsu's 1.5 trillion yuan, ranking third and fourth; The total import value of Shandong Province and Zhejiang Province exceeded 900 billion yuan, ranking fifth and sixth respectively; Fujian Province ranked seventh with 580.2 billion yuan. All other provinces and cities are less than 500 billion yuan.

In terms of growth rate, only 15 provinces and cities have increased their imports 5.2% faster than the national growth rate, of which Guizhou (72%), Ningxia (50.6%) and Heilongjiang (34.1%) rank in the top three; Beijing ranked fourth with a growth rate of 25.6%.

The import demand of 9 provinces and cities declined, among which, the import growth rate of Hebei, Jilin, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Tibet declined by more than 10% year on year, and some regions were greatly affected by the earlier epidemic. However, compared with the first half of the year, Shanghai's imports have achieved a sustained positive growth, with a year-on-year growth of 1.1% from January to September.

The strong import growth of most provinces in the first three quarters also enabled 22 provinces and cities to achieve import and export trade surpluses, including Zhejiang's trade surplus of 1.68 trillion yuan, Guangdong's surplus of 1.67 trillion yuan, and Jiangsu's surplus of 1.11 trillion yuan. In fact, only these three economically strong provinces have a trade surplus of more than one trillion yuan.

The surplus of Shandong Province was 516.083 billion yuan, ranking the fourth; Fujian has a surplus of 322.905 billion yuan, ranking fifth. The surplus of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Hubei and Sichuan reached 150 billion yuan.

In contrast, there are 9 regions with continued trade deficits, most of which are in the north, such as the three eastern provinces, Tianjin, Beijing and Inner Mongolia. Among them, Beijing has the largest deficit, up to 1.81 trillion yuan; The second is Shanghai's negative balance of 587.138 billion yuan and Heilongjiang's negative balance of 117.437 billion yuan.

In general, China's import and export trade maintained a steady growth in the first three quarters, especially in the current situation of slow investment and low consumption, the export growth continued to be strong, making an important contribution to stimulating and stabilizing economic growth.