China's foreign trade up 5.7% in first 4 months

China's total imports and exports of goods expanded 5.7 percent year-on-year in the first four months of this year to 13.81 trillion yuan ($1.91 trillion), data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday.

From January to April, exports grew 4.9 percent year-on-year to 7.81 trillion yuan, while imports rose 6.8 percent to 6 trillion yuan, the data showed.

Private businesses, as evidenced by the data, have played a bigger role in fueling the growth of foreign trade in goods. During the period, the trade value of private enterprises took up 54.6 percent of the total, up 2.5 percentage points from the same period last year, while that of the foreign-invested enterprises constituted 29.1 percent.

Thursday's data also pointed to an uptick in China's imports and exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United States.

In the first four months, China's trade with its largest trade partner, ASEAN, rose 8.5 percent year-on-year to 2.18 trillion yuan, accounting for 15.8 percent of the country's total trade value.

The country's trade in goods with its third-largest trade partner, the US, grew 1.1 percent to 1.47 trillion yuan during the period, while that with the European Union, its second-largest trade partner, edged down 1.8 percent year-on-year.

Highlights of China's trade in goods during the January-April period include a robust increase in exports of machinery and electronic products, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the country's total exports during the period.

In particular, the export value of automatic data processing equipment, integrated circuits and vehicles, surged 9.7 percent, 23.5 percent and 24.9 percent year-on-year, respectively, during the period, the data showed.