CHINA’S trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) posted robust growth in the first half of this year, official data showed Friday.

Trade with BRI countries totaled 4.24 trillion yuan (US$617.5 billion) during this period, up 9.7 percent year on year and outpacing the growth rate of the country’s total first-half trade, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China’s foreign trade remained stable growth in the first half of this year by expanding 3.9 percent year on year.

Trade with BRI countries also registered a higher share of China’s total trade, which stood at 28.9 percent, up by 1.5 percentage points compared with the first half of 2018.

Exports and imports with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Egypt went up by 11.5 percent, 34 percent and 11 percent respectively, official data showed.

Exports fell 1.3 percent in June from a year earlier, not as bad as the 2 percent drop analysts had expected but reversing a surprise gain in May, the data showed Friday.

Imports fell 7.3 percent in June, a sharper drop than the 4.5 percent forecast by analysts and following a 8.5 percent contraction in May, suggesting domestic demand remains tepid despite a flurry of growth boosting measures since last year.

That left China with a trade surplus of US$50.98 billion last month, compared with a US$41.66 billion surplus in May. Analysts had forecast a surplus of US$44.65 billion for June.

June marked the first full month of higher U.S. tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods.

China’s trade surplus with the United States rose to US$29.92 billion in June from US$26.9 billion in May.

For the first half of the year, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. rose around 5 percent to US$140.48 billion, compared with US$133.76 billion in the same period in 2018.

China’s trade surplus with the United States rose 12 percent in yuan-terms in the first half of this year, the customs said Friday.

Exports to the United States fell 2.6 percent in yuan terms in the first six months this year from the same period a year earlier, while imports shrank 25.7 percent, customs spokesman Li Kuiwen told reporters in a quarterly briefing.

U.S.-China trade frictions brought some pressure on China’s trade, but the impact is manageable, Li said.(SD-Agencies)