China's goods imports reached a new high in the first quarter of 2026, the latest official data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday.
The total value of China's goods imports and exports reached 11.84 trillion yuan (about 1.73 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2026, up 15 percent year on year.
Exports rose 11.9 percent from the same period of last year to 6.85 trillion yuan, while imports went up 19.6 percent to 4.99 trillion yuan, which is a new high for the first three-month period, according to the data.
In the first quarter of this year, China saw increases of imports from over 150 other countries and regions, and 51 other countries and regions saw their respective exports to China exceed 10 billion yuan, three more compared with the same period of last year.
"Imports from the main sources of the ASEAN and the European Union respectively accounted for 14.8 percent and 9.1 percent of China's total imports during the period. The growth rates of imports from Central Asia and Latin America were both higher than the overall rate, while the imports from Africa increased by 14.6 percent," said Wang Jun, deputy head of the General Administration of Customs, at a press conference in Beijing.
The official said that China's accelerating industrial production drove the rise of raw materials imports. In the first three months, China's imports of energy products and metal ores increased by 9.4 percent, while the imports of textile raw materials, computer components and electronic parts surged by 39.3 percent, 45.3 percent and 37.9 percent, respectively.
China's imports of consumer goods went up 5.4 percent in the January-March period as incentive policies for boosting consumption continued to show effects.
"On top of being the world's factory, China also wants to be the world's market. In continuously expanding opening-up, on December 1, 2024, China started giving all least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines. And starting May 1 this year, China will grant 53 African countries having diplomatic relations with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, so as to help these countries share the Chinese market with high-quality products," Wang said.
China's imports reach new high in January-March
