China-Africa trade hits new high in first five months of 2025

China's trade with African countries hit a record high in the first five months of this year, reaching 963.21 billion yuan (about 134 billion U.S. dollars), up 12.4 percent year on year, according to the latest data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Specifically, China's exports to Africa rose 20.2 percent from a year ago to 599.57 billion yuan in the first five months, while its imports from Africa gained 1.6 percent to 363.64 billion yuan.

Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, China has expanded its economic and trade cooperation with Africa and has been the largest trading partner to Africa for 16 consecutive years.

The trade volume between China and Africa exceeded two trillion yuan (278 billion U.S. dollars) annually in 2024, growing for the fourth consecutive year.

"The China-Africa trade index formulated by the Chinese customs authorities has rapidly risen from the base value of 100 points since the establishment of FOCAC in 2000. It exceeded 1,000 points in 2023 and reached 1,056.53 points in 2024, fully demonstrating the strong vitality of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation," said Lyu Daliang, the GAC's spokesman, in an interview with China Central Television on the occasion of the Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.

In recent years, the trade in agricultural products between China and Africa has been continuously expanding, with imports and exports exceeding 70 billion yuan for the first time in 2024.

In the first five months of this year, China imported agricultural products worth 15.83 billion yuan from Africa, while its exports of pesticide formulations and agricultural machinery to Africa increased by 12 percent and 41 percent respectively.

Since 2022, Africa has always been the largest market for China's exports of goods for overseas contracted projects. In the Jan-May period of 2025, China's exports to Africa in this way reached 12.59 billion yuan, an increase of 46.5 percent year on year.

In the first five months of this year, China's exports of ships and marine engineering equipment, construction machinery, and electric motors and generators to Africa increased by 41.6 percent, 58.5 percent and 51.1 percent year on year respectively.

International gold and silver prices both dropped on Tuesday.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for August delivery fell 1.27 percent to settle at 4,149.40 U.S. dollars per ounce, while silver futures for July delivery dropped 5.36 percent to close at 62.070 dollars per ounce.

Deutsche Bank cut its forecast for international gold prices in a report released on Tuesday.

The bank noted that if the U.S. Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, its gold price target for the third quarter of this year stands at 4,300 dollars per ounce, a downward revision of more than one-fifth from its prior estimate.

It also said that if the Fed raises interest rates three to four times, gold price could slump to 3,800 dollars per ounce.