According to the statistics released by China's General Administration of Customs, China's trading volume for the first nine months of the current year totaled $1.56 trillion in value, down 20.9 percent year on year. Meanwhile, Chinese exports for the period in question came to $846.65 billion, down 21.3 percent year on year, while imports amounted to $711.17 billion, down 20.4 percent. China's total trade surplus for the period stood at $135.48 billion, down 26 percent year on year.
China's total trading volume in September amounted to $218.94 billion, down 10.1 percent over the same month last year. Exports in September decreased 15.2 percent year on year to $115.93 billion, while imports were down 3.5 percent to $103.01 billion.
In the January-September period, the value of trade between China and the European Union, its biggest trading partner, totaled $260.05 billion, down 19.4 percent year on year. The trading volume between China and the US during the period in question was worth $211.88 billion, down 15.8 percent year on year. Finally, Japan continued to be China's third largest trading partner, with bilateral trade falling 20 percent year on year to $162.22 billion.