On July 29th, Yang Tao, Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced the general situation of business operation in the first half of 2022 at the special press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce. He said that the business operation showed a recovery trend in the first half of the year, especially since the second quarter, with the gradual emergence of policy effects, the main business indicators stabilized and rebounded, which provided important support for stabilizing the macroeconomic market.
First, foreign trade grew rapidly. In the first half of the year, the import and export of goods reached 19.8 trillion yuan, up 9.4% year-on-year, while imports and exports increased by 4.8% and 13.2% respectively. Among them, due to unexpected factors, the growth rate of import and export dropped to 0.1% in April, and rebounded rapidly in May and June, reaching 9.5% and 14.3% respectively, showing the strong development resilience of foreign trade. It grew rapidly with major trading partners, with imports and exports to the United States, the European Union and ASEAN increasing by 11.7%, 7.5% and 10.6% respectively, and imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road increased by 17.8%. "Travel" products grew rapidly, and the export of automobiles, shoes and bags increased by 51.1%, 31.4% and 34.6% respectively, which were 37.9%, 18.2% and 21.4% higher than the overall export growth rate respectively. Stabilizing the main body and stabilizing employment has achieved remarkable results. In the first half of the year, there were 506,000 enterprises with import and export performance, an increase of 5.5%. The import and export of private enterprises increased by 13.6%, accounting for 1.9 percentage points to 49.6%. Trade in services developed steadily. From January to May, the import and export of services reached 2.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 22%, of which exports increased by 26.3% and imports increased by 18.2%.
Second, domestic consumption has gradually recovered. In the first half of the year, the total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 21 trillion yuan, down 0.7% year-on-year. Among them, April was obviously affected by the epidemic, and the growth rate dropped to -11.1%. The decline narrowed to -6.7% in May and increased by 3.1% in June. New consumption achieved rapid development. The development trend of new consumption such as live e-commerce and contactless services is good. In the first half of the year, the online retail sales of physical goods increased by 5.6%, accounting for 25.9% of the total. Sales of new energy vehicles increased by 1.2 times. Physical commerce has picked up. The retail sales of supermarkets and specialty store increased by 4.2% and 2.8% respectively, 0.2 and 1.6 percentage points faster than the previous five months. Guaranteed supply and stable price are powerful and effective. Give full play to the role of multi-provincial joint guarantee and supply mechanism for daily necessities, strengthen market monitoring and early warning, ensure sufficient supply of daily necessities, and basically stabilize market prices. In the first half of the year, CPI rose by 1.7%.
Third, the quality of attracting foreign investment has improved. In the first half of the year, the actual use of foreign capital was 723.31 billion yuan, an increase of 17.4% in comparable terms. The investment structure is more optimized. Manufacturing and high-tech industries achieved "double promotion", and the actual use of foreign capital in manufacturing increased by 54.8%, accounting for 5.9 percentage points higher than the same period of last year to 25.4%; The actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries increased by 33.6%, accounting for 3.8 percentage points to 35.5%. The main sources of investment grew steadily. The actual investment in the United States, Germany and Britain increased by 26.1%, 13.9% and 13.4% respectively (including some free ports, the same below), while the actual investment in South Korea and Hong Kong increased by 37.2% and 15.8% respectively. The high-level open platform has obvious driving effect. In the first half of the year, the actual use of foreign capital in 21 pilot free trade zones was 119.85 billion yuan, an increase of 16.8%, attracting nearly 16.6% of foreign capital with an area of less than four thousandths. The service industry’s foreign investment in the "1+4" demonstration pilot area increased by 15%, accounting for 34.7% of China’s service industry’s foreign investment. The foreign investment absorbed by 230 national economic development zones increased by 42.1%, accounting for 19.6%.
Fourth, foreign investment cooperation developed steadily. In the first half of the year, foreign non-financial direct investment reached 351.67 billion yuan, up 0.8% year-on-year (equivalent to 54.24 billion US dollars, up 0.6%), and the turnover of foreign contracted projects reached 458 billion yuan, up 4.2%. The "Belt and Road" investment cooperation has been deepening. Direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road reached 65.03 billion yuan, up 4.9%. The investment structure was continuously optimized. Investment in wholesale and retail, scientific research and technical services and manufacturing increased by 21.3%, 15.6% and 13% respectively.
V. Multilateral and regional cooperation is deepening. The 12th WTO Ministerial Conference achieved fruitful results. The promotion strategy of the free trade zone was fully implemented. Promote the high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and continuously achieve new results. Actively promote the accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). China — Cambodian FTA, China — New Zealand FTA Upgrade Protocol came into effect. Reach an early harvest arrangement for a free trade agreement with Nicaragua. Regional cooperation has achieved positive results. Successfully held the 12th BRICS Economic and Trade Ministers’ Meeting. Promote the APEC Trade Ministers’ Meeting to reach a consensus.