According to the latest figures, China's general machinery industry registered almost seven percent growth in sales revenues in the first half of the current year.
In the January-June period, the overall industry in question achieved sales revenues of RMB 205.13 billion ($30 billion), up 6.83 percent year on year. The growth rate was 26.56 percentage points lower compared with the same period last year. From January to May, total profit of this industry amounted to RMB 8.736 billion ($1.28 billion), down 5.21 percent year on year.
According to the customs statistics, the total import and export value of China's general machinery industry in the first half of 2009 reached $12.794 billion, down 9.6 percent year on year. During the period in question, exports totaled $6.368 billion in value, down 18.16 percent, while the value of imports was up very slightly by 0.007 percent to $6.425 billion, resulting in the trade deficit of $57.0858 million - the first deficit since Q3 2006. As for the reasons for this deficit: firstly, the world economy is still in deep recession; secondly, there is increasing protectionism in some countries; thirdly, due to the ascending RMB real effective exchange rate, the price advantage of Chinese products has been weakened significantly.