Guangdong's foreign trade faltering

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Beijing, Nov.16 (People's Daily Online) --China's Guangdong province is facing a grim foreign trade situation as both its imports and exports are showing signs of waning.

The province's exports in October this year grew nearly 8 percent from a year earlier but dropped nearly 9 percent from the previous month, according to information from the International Consultative Conference on the Future Economic Development of Guangdong Province, which kicked off in Guangzhou, the province's capital, on Nov. 14.

The sluggish global economy and complex international conditions have inevitably affected Guangdong’s export-driven economy. Zhu Xiaodan, deputy Party chief and acting governor of the province, said that the province’s total imports and exports during the first six months of the year rose 26 percent from a year earlier to nearly 435.1 billion U.S. dollars.

However, the year-on-year growth rate of its foreign trade volume during the first 10 months of the year declined sharply to 19 percent, with the total volume standing at 744.3 billion U.S. dollars.