Hangzhou Customs recently released a ¡°report card¡± of Zhejiang¡¯s foreign trade business from January to July. Statistics show that in the first seven months of this year, Zhejiang has achieved a total import and export amount of 123.81 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 27.1%. This increase is not only higher than the national average growth rate by 0.7 percent but also higher than that of the major foreign trade provinces and cities in the country, over Guandong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai by 13.1 percent, 5.2 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.

Statistics show that Zhejiang's export volume in July reached 15.43 billion U.S. dollars, setting a record of single-month export amount, a year-on-year increase of 20.4%. From January to July, Zhejiang has achieved a total export volume of 88.53 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 25.1%, and 2.5 percent higher than the national average level. Since China's foreign trade statistics is counted in U.S. dollars, considering the factor of exchange rate, the actual growth rate of Zhejiang¡¯s export in the first seven months would be below 20%, indicating a still severe situation of export.

As for import, from January to July Zhejiang¡¯s import growth rate is 32.3%, in the leading position among the major foreign trade provinces and cities, and higher than that of Guangzhou, Jiangsu and Shanghai by 17.7, 14.1 and 11 percent respectively.