From January to September this year, Sichuan's imports and exports were valued 734.96 billion yuan, up 9.8% year on year, and making the province rank eighth in China, according to the latest data from Chengdu Customs District. Exports grew by 13.6% year on year to 443.83 billion yuan, while imports totaled 291.13 billion yuan, rising 4.5% on a year-on-year basis.
In terms of trade forms, the proportion of Sichuan's general trade continued to increase. The value of general trade reached 235.95 billion yuan, up 48.3% year on year, which was 38.5 percentage points higher than the average growth rate of the province, and adding 11.5 percentage points to the province's overall trade growth in the same period. The exports through mart procurement trade surged 118.8% year on year to 17.39 billion yuan.
In terms of market entities, private enterprises grew by over 40%. In the first nine months, private enterprises in Sichuan secured the imports and exports of 239.14 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 41.5%, which was 31.7 percentage points higher than the average growth rate of the province's overall trade. The proportion of private enterprises' imports and exports in the province's overall trade was 7.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year. In Sichuan, there were 5,807 foreign trade enterprises with actual performance, an increase of 702 compared with the same period last year and contributing 106.6% to the province's overall trade growth.