The Chongqing municipal government held a press release on July 18, concluding the municipality's overall foreign trade performance in the first half of 2022.

During this period, Chongqing recorded 423.65 billion yuan ($62.66 billion) in foreign trade, a year-on-year increase of 12.5 percent – 3.1 percentage points higher than the national average. Chongqing ranked ninth in terms of exports and imports in China, with values of 276.99 billion yuan and 146.66 billion yuan, respectively.

Exports and imports in the second quarter of this year came in at 226.35 billion yuan, surging 14.7 percent over the first quarter. Except for February, there has been double-digit growth every month, especially June, which saw imports and exports valued at 79.71 billion yuan, a record high.

Meanwhile, over the first six months of 2022, Chongqing's private companies registered 191.4 billion yuan in foreign trade, and its processing trade has achieved positive growth for the past 13 months.

The municipality's exports and imports to and from ASEAN, the EU and the United States were valued at 66.29 billion yuan, 61.99 billion yuan and 57.92 billion yuan, respectively, while its trade with the South Korea and India increased sharply by 40.8 percent and 54.4 percent, respectively.

According to a spokesman at the Chongqing Customs, several factors accounted for the sustained foreign trade growth, including the limited impact of COVID-19 in the domestic market and industrial restructuring in?central and western China, with auto-making and electronic product industrial clusters taking shape.