On April 13, the State General Administration of Customs announced the cumulative import and export data for the first quarter of this year. From January to March, the recovery of our country's foreign trade was steadily strengthened and stable and improved, achieving a sustained "good start". Among them, the export performance of the home furnishing industry is very impressive!

From January to March, the export value of furniture and its parts was 105.43 billion yuan, an increase of 61% over the same period last year (65.5 billion yuan). Among them, the export value of furniture and its parts in March was 33.53 billion yuan.

Except for furniture, exports of textiles, ceramic products, lamps/lighting devices and parts, and household appliances from January to March all increased year-on-year.

Among them, the export value of ceramic products was 38.32 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.5%; the export value of lamps, lighting devices and parts was 67.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 86.5%; the export value of textiles was 206.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.6%; the export of household appliances was 147.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 63.4%.

On the whole, in the first quarter, the total value of China's import and export of goods was 8.47 trillion yuan, an increase of 29.2% over the same period last year. Among them, exports were 4.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 38.7%; imports were 3.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.3%; the trade surplus was 759.29 billion yuan, an increase of 690.6%.

Statistics show that in the first quarter, ASEAN, the European Union, the United States and Japan were our country’s top four trading partners, with imports and exports of 1.24 trillion yuan, 1.19 trillion yuan, 1.08 trillion yuan and 561.42 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 26.1% and 36.4% respectively 61.3% and 20.8%. In addition, our country's imports and exports to countries along the “Belt and Road” and RCEP trading partners increased by 21.4% and 22.9% respectively.

Yan Min, director of the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecasting Department of the State Information Center, said that in the context of the global economic slowdown, our country is promoting the high-quality development of the "Belt and Road" and fully achieving in-depth cooperation. This will not only improve our country’s foreign trade vitality and potential can also drive the economic and trade development of countries along the “Belt and Road”.

Can the export boom continue? Li Kuiwen, a spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs and Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department, said that the global COVID-19 epidemic is currently repeating, and there are still many unstable and uncertain factors in the international situation. For example, sudden factors such as the recent "blocking" of the Suez Canal have brought short-term effects on the timeliness of international trade logistics. In addition, in the second quarter of last year, our country’s imports and exports increased by 16.8% from the first quarter of last year. This base figure increased significantly last year, which objectively brought challenges to the growth of foreign trade in the second quarter of this year.

On the whole, there will be many favorable factors in the operation of our country's foreign trade in the future, but there will also be many external challenges, and the steady growth of foreign trade still has a long way to go. Li Kuiwen said that the customs will take more effective measures to promote the implementation of various tasks to ensure that the "14th Five-Year Plan" foreign trade has a good start.