Regular Press Conference of the Ministry of Commerce on November 17, 2015

Friends from the media:

Welcome to the Press Conference today. I’m glad to see you again. Next, I willbrief you the business performance in October 2015, and answer your questions.

I. Market performance

Since the beginning of this year, the domestic consumer market maintained asteady growth, and the consumption growth increased recently, playing animportant role in stabilizing economic growth. In October, the retail sales ofconsumer goods reached RMB2.83 trillion, up 11.0% year on year, and with theprice factor excluded, the actual growth was 11.0%, 0.1 and 0.2 percentagepoints higher than September respectively. The monthly growth saw a pick up forthree consecutive months. In January-October the retail sales of consumer goodswas up 10.6%, 0.1 percentage points higher than the first three quarters. Themain features of the consumer markets in October are as follows:

1. Online consumption maintained a rapid growth. In October, the online retailsales of enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was up 39.9%, 6.5percentage points higher than the same period of last year, and 39.8, 32.7 and37.2 percentage points higher than those of the special stores, supermarketsand department stores in the same month. According to the statistics ofNational Bureau of Statistics, the online retail sales of physical commoditiesin October was up 21.8% year on year, accounting for 10.4% of the total retailsales of consumer goods.

2. Rural consumption maintained a rapid growth. Driven by the rapid growth ofrural consumer demands, the rural consumption in October was up 12.2%,contributing 14.9% to the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods inOctober, and 0.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Atthe same time, growth of urban and rural consumption saw a larger gap, withrural consumption 1.4 percentage points higher than urban consumption, 0.4percentage points larger than the same period last year.

3. Automobile consumption picked up. Driven by the policy stimulation and theupgrading demands of the market, the automobile market picked up in October.Sales of automobiles of enterprises above designated size was up 7.1% year onyear, 4.4 percentage points higher than September and 2.6 percentage pointshigher than the same period last year respectively. According to the statisticsof China Association of Automobile Industry, the automobile sale in October wasup 11.8% year on year, 9.7 percentage points higher than September. The sale ofpassenger car was up 13.3%, with sale growth of SUV over 60%. According to thestatistics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the sale ofnew energy automobile in October was up 3.1 times year on year.

4. Consumption for service was vigorous. Dining out in holidays and festivalincreased, which drove catering consumption to pick up. In October, thenational catering revenue was up 12.4%, 2.7 percentage points higher than thesame period of last year. The catering revenue of enterprises above thedesignated size was up 6.7 percentage points. In October, the film box officereached RMB4.92 billion, and that in the National Day Holidays was up 66.4%year on year. According to the statistics of National Tourism Administration,the domestic tourists in the National Day Holidays reached 520 million, up10.7% year on year with the tourism revenue reaching 17.9%.

5. Housing consumption picked up. The picking up of real estate market drovethe sustainable and rapid growth of consumption for housing commodities. InOctober, the sales of building materials, furniture and household appliances ofenterprise above the designated size were up 19.7%, 12.4% and 7.1%respectively, 5.3, 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points higher than the same period oflast year respectively.

6. Consumer price increased gently. In October, CPI was up 1.3%, 0.3 percentagepoints lower than last month and than the same period last year. According tothe Ministry of Commerce, the general price level of farm products in the 36large and medium sized cities was up 0.5% year on year, with pork, chicken andmilk up 13.7%, 2.7% and 2.4% respectively; and mutton, eggs and vegetable down12.4%, 8.2% and 7.2% respectively.

II. Foreign Trade

Considering the current situation of foreign trade, China’s foreign tradedevelopment this year faces a more severe situation than 2014 with increasingdownward pressure. According to the Customs statistics, China’s total importand export in January-October reached US$ 3,226.96 billion, down 8.5%. Amongthem, the export reached US$ 1,856.45 billion, down 2.5% year on year; theimport was US$ 1,370.52 billion, down 15.7% year on year. In October, China’simport and export reached US$ 323.19 billion, down 12.1%, among which theexport was US$ 192.41 billion, down 6.4%, and the import was US$ 130.77billion, down 18.8%. The foreign trade in January-October presented thefollowing features:

1. Export of general trade maintained a growth with the proportion increased.In January-October, export of general trade reached US$ 999.8 billion, up 1.8%,accounting for 53.9% of the total export of foreign trade, and 2.3 percentagepoints higher than the same period last year; export of processing tradereached US$ 649.3 billion, down 9.0%, accounting for 35% of the total export offoreign trade, and 2.5 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

2. Export of mechanical and electricalproducts maintained growth, but export of labor intensive products decreased.In January-October, export of mechanical and electrical products reached US$10,655.7 billion, up 0.8% year on year, accounting for 57.4% of the totalexport， and 1.9 percentage points higher than that of the sameperiod of 2014. Among them, export of mobile phone, ship and lamps increased13.1%, 16.9% and 13.9% respectively. Export of seven kinds of labor intensiveproducts reached US$ 389.59 billion, down 3.0% year on year with that oftextile, garment and shoes decreasing 1.9%, 7.5% and 5.1% respectively.

3. Export of private enterprises maintained growth. In January-October, exportof private enterprises amounted to US$ 831.5 billion, up 1.3% year on year,accounting for 44.8% of the total export, and 1.7 percentage points higher thanthat of the same period of last year.

Fourthly, trade with countries along the“Belt and Road” grew rapidly. In January-October, China’s exports to neighborcountries like India, Thailand, and Vietnam grew 8.4%, 14.3% and 5.5%respectively, and those to US and ASEAN up 5.2% and 3.7% respectively. China’sexports to EU, Japan and Hong Kong decreased 4.1%, 9.5% and 12.2% respectively,and those to emerging markets like Russia and Brazil down 35.7% and 17.2%respectively.

Fifthly, exports of eastern, central andwestern China saw a negative growth. In January-October, the exports of tenprovinces and cities in eastern China (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province,Liaoning province, Shanghai, Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province, Fujianprovince, Shandong province and Guangdong province) registered US$1.54993trillion, down 1.9% and exports of central and western China amounted toUS$306.52 billion, down 5.2%.

Sixthly, affected by the decline ofprices of bulk commodity and weak domestic demands, the import still runs atlow price. In January-October, the imports of 8 kinds of bulk commodities suchas crude oil, plastics, soybean, refined oil products, natural gas, pulp,cereal and copper increased， but their prices dropped, with adecrease of US$134 billion (RMB840 billion) payment exchange, greatly reducingthe production cost of domestic enterprises.

Seventhly, from a global view, China’sexports are better than global major economies and emerging markets. Accordingto the statistics by WTO, in January-August, exports of US and EU decreased6.0% and 14.7% respectively; In January-September, exports of Japan, ROK,India, South Africa and Brazil went down 9.2%, 6.6%, 16.6%, 7.9% and 16.8%respectively; China’s market share is steadily rising to 13% from 12.4% at theend of 2014.

III. Foreign Investment in China

In January-October 2015, a total of21,022 newly-established foreign-invested enterprises were approved, going up9.3% year on year. The actually utilized foreign capital was RMB639.42 billion(US$103.68 billion), up 8.6% year on year. In October, 2,042 newly-establishedforeign-invested enterprises were approved, up 2.5% year on year. The actuallyutilized foreign capital amounted to RMB54.68 billion (US$8.77 billion), up4.2% year on year. The characteristics of foreign investment in China inJanuary-October are presented as follows:

1. The industrial structure was furtheroptimized. In January-October, the actually-utilized FDI in service sectorstood at US$63.42 billion, up 19.4% year on year, taking up 61.2% of thenational total, that in hi-tech service sector amounted to US$6.76 billion, up57.5% year on year, taking up 17.5% of the total actual use of foreign capitalin service sector (excluding the real estate). Among these, scientific researchservice, information technology service and R&D and design service stoodout with an increase of 86.5%, 48.8% and 41.3% year on year. The utilized FDIin manufacturing reached US$32.6 billion, up 0.2% year on year, taking up 31.4%of the national total, of which the actually utilized FDI in high-techmanufacturing was US$7.58 billion, up 11.6% year on year, taking up 23.3% ofthe total actually utilized FDI in manufacturing. Among these, the actuallyutilized FDI in communication equipment manufacturing, electronic computercomponents manufacturing, and chemical products manufacturing increased 143.6%,36.2% and 20.8% respectively.

2. The main sources of investment becamediverse. In January-October, investment from ASEAN, EU, countries along the“Belt and Road”, Hong Kong district and Macao district increased 10.8%, 13.7%,14%, 12.6% and 68.9% respectively; that from Japan, US and Taiwan district decreased25.1%, 13.6% and 19.3% respectively. The actual input of the top ten countriesand regions (calculated by the actual input of foreign capital) amounted toUS$97.6 billion, taking up 94.1% of the national total, going up 8% year onyear.

In October, a total of 158newly-established enterprises invested by 28 EU countries were approved, goingup 8.2% year on year. The actual input of foreign investment registered US$600million, up 10.8% year on year.

3. The pulling role that pilot freetrade zones play stood out. With the constantly deepening of pilot free tradezones, in January-October, the actually utilized FDI in eastern Chinaregistered US$88.41 billion, going up 10.1% year on year. A total of 9,859newly-established enterprises in Yangtze river economic belt zone wereapproved, up 7.8% year on year, taking up 47% of the national total.

4. Both the scale and percentage offoreign M&A were greatly improved. In January-October, the number ofnewly-established foreign-invested enterprises by M&A reached 1,122 and theactually utilized FDI registered US$15.98 billion, going up 16% and 176.9%respectively year on year. The percentage that M&A takes up among thenational total of the actually utilized FDI in January-October has risen to15.4% from 6%.

IV. China’s Investment and EconomicCooperation Overseas

Direct investment overseas. InJanuary-October, the Chinese investors have made non-financial directinvestment in 5,553 enterprises in 152 countries and regions, with anaccumulative investment of RMB589.2 billion (US$95.21 billion), going up 16.3%year on year. By the end of October, China’s combined non-financial directinvestment amounted to RMB5.2 trillion (US$840.2 billion).

In January-October, the number ofcountries and regions with Chinese foreign direct investment flow above US$100million reached 49. Among these, 10 countries were above US$1 billion,including China’s Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, the U.S., Singapore, the BritishVirgin Islands, Netherlands, Australia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Brazil.

In January-October, the investment fromChinese mainland to seven major economies such as Hong Kong, ASEAU, EU,Australia, the United States, Russia and Japan reached US$70.52 billion,accounting for 74% of the total foreign direct investment of China in the sameperiod. The investment to ASEAN, the United States and Hong Kong increasedrapidly by 115.8%, 31.5% and 18.8% respectively year on year. The investment toEU, Australia and Russia decreased 39.2%, 12.7% and 8.5% respectively.

In October, the foreign directinvestment of China reached US$7.91 billion, with an increase of 14.3%.

Contracted projects overseas. InJanuary-September, the turnover of China’s contracted projects overseasamounted to RMB710.64 billion (US$114.84 billion), up 6.4% year on year. Thenewly-signed contract value was RMB921.53 billion (US$148.92 billion), up 18.3%year on year. In October, the turnover stood at US$14.02 billion, down 10.2%year on year with a newly-signed contract value of US$11.29 billion, down 33.9%year on year.

In January-October, there were 527projects with a newly-signed contracted value of more than US$50 million (up 43year on year), with a total value of US$123.61 billion, accounting for 83% ofthe newly-signed contracted value. There were 307 projects with a value of morethan US$100 million, up 39 year on year. In October, there were 48 projectswith a newly-signed contracted value of more than US$50 million (down 20 yearon year), with a total value of US$9.28 billion (down US$4.83 billion year onyear), accounting for 82.2% of the total newly-signed contracted value inOctober. There were 25 projects with a value of more than US$100 million,decreasing by 16 year on year.

By the end of October, the contractvalue of China’s contracted projects overseas amounted to US$1.64813 trillion,with a turnover of US$1.15082 trillion.

Labor service cooperation overseas. InJanuary-October, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas amounted to427,000, with a decrease of 22,000 over the same period of last year, goingdown 4.9% year on year. Labor service personnel dispatched overseas forcontracted projects were 213,000 and that for labor service cooperation were215,000. In October, a total of 45,000 labor service personnel were sent abroadwith a decrease of 9,000. By the end of October, the labor service personneldispatched overseas reached 1,032,000, increasing increase by 34,000 over thesame period of last year.

By the end of October, the labor servicepersonnel dispatched overseas totaled 7,910,000.

V. Service Outsourcing

Since this year, the growth of theservice import and export has maintained more than 10% for 9 consecutivemonths. In the first three quarters, the service trade of China increasedsteadily, with an accumulative service trade volume of US$495.33 billion(without governmental service), with an increase of 15.9% year on year,accounting for 14.6% of the foreign trade proportion, 2.7 percentage pointshigher than the same period year of last year. The service export reachedUS$171.63 billion, with an increase of 11.6% and the export was US$323.7billion, with an increase of 18.3%. Some features are presented as follows:

Firstly, the service import and exporthas an accelerated growth season by season. The third quarter has the fastestincrease, with the amplification of import and export and that of import bothincreasing more than 20%. The growth of the service import and export in thefirst, the second and the third quarter reached 10.6%, 15.8% and 20.9%respectively. The export growth reached 10.5%, 11.3% and 12.9% respectively andthe import growth was 10.6%, 18.2% and 25.5% respectively.

Secondly, the service export structurewas further optimized. In the first three quarters, the high value-addedservice export increased rapidly, with an accumulative growth oftelecommunication, computer and information service export 19.1% and that ofinsurance and pension service 23.75%. Although the export scale of intellectualproperty royalty and culture and entertainment was small, the growth was rapid,with an increase of 80.3% and 53.4% respectively. The service import was mainlydriven by the tourism and the growth of the tourism in the first three quartersreached 50%, accounting for 58.1% of the total import amounts.

Thirdly, the growth in the area of thekey strategic layout was favorable. In the first three quarters, the serviceimport and export volume in the regions along the line of the “Yangtze EconomicBelt” was US$204.5 billion, accounting for 41.3% of the total national volume,with an increase of 19%, driving 7.6% of the national service import and exportgrowth. The export reached US$70.13 billion, with an increase of 12.1% year onyear; the import was US$134.37 billion, with an increase of 22.9%. The serviceimport and export in Shanghai continued to play a leading role in China, with atotal amount of US$107.36 billion, ranking the first in China, with an increaseof 16.3% year on year. The growth of the service import and export in otherprovinces and cities except for Yunnan exceeded 15.9% of the national growth.The growth of the service import and export in the three northeast provinces ofChina was accelerated. In the first three quarters, the service import andexport in these regions reached US$22.23 billion, with an increase of 19.3%year on year, 3.4 percentage points higher than the national average growth.The service export was US$5.15 billion, with an increase of 6.2%, 5.4percentage points lower than the national average growth. The service importreached US$17.09 billion, with an increase of 23.9% year on year, 5.6percentage points higher than the national average growth. The growth of theservice import and export in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang was 15.7%, 28.2%and 26% respectively.