China's foreign trade less dependent on developed markets( Xinhua) 20:27, October 12, 2013 China has diversified its trade relations and become less dependent on developedeconomies, according to a spokesman for the General Administration of Customs (GAC) onSaturday.
From January to September, trade with the European Union, the United States and Japanaccounted for 33.2 percent of China's total foreign trade volume during the period, down2.6 percentage points from the same period last year, said GAC spokesman ZhengYuesheng.
In the first nine months, combined exports and imports to China's nine Free TradeAgreement (FTA) partners, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),Chile and Pakistan, rose 17 percent year on year, faster than its overall foreign tradegrowth of 7.7 percent, Zheng said.
Trade with the nine FTA partners accounted for 13.9 percent of the country's total foreigntrade volume, compared with 12.8 percent in the same period last year, Zheng said.
Saturday's customs data showed China's exports fell unexpectedly by 0.3 percent inSeptember from a year earlier, ending two consecutive months of gains, while importsincreased 7.4 percent year on year.
Although challenged by a complicated global economic situation, Zheng said the country'sforeign trade was stabilizing with an improved structure.
"China's dependance on external demand has weakened," Zheng said, which showed thecountry's economic development is transforming from being driven by external demand todomestic demand.
In the first half of the year, China's foreign trade dependence ratio, or the ratio of a giveneconomy's foreign trade volume to its GDP, fell 0.7 percentage points from a year ago to50.4 percent.
（Editor：WangXin、Liang Jun） Related reading
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