China's trade with the five Central Asian countries grew by 10.4 percent year on year in the first five months this year to reach 286.42 billion yuan (about 39.88 billion U.S. dollars), a new high for the same period in history, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) released on Sunday. According to customs statistics, China's imports and exports with the five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, have expanded from 312.04 billion yuan in 2013 to 674.15 billion yuan in 2024, an increase of 116 percent, with an average annual growth rate of 7.3 percent, which is 2.3 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate of China's overall foreign trade during the same period.
In the first five months this year, China's exports to the five countries reached 188.18 billion yuan, increasing by 5.6 percent, and imports reached 98.24 billion yuan, increasing by 21 percent.
In the period, China imported agricultural products worth 4.36 billion yuan from the five Central Asian countries, an increase of 26.9 percent.
In breakdown, the import of flaxseeds from Kazakhstan, raisins from Uzbekistan and honey from Kyrgyzstan increased by 202.1 percent, 153.7 percent and 10.9 times, respectively.
China, Central Asian countries see rapid growth of bilateral trade in Jan-May period
