JINAN, July 29 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shandong Province reported better-than-expected trade growth in the first half of 2019 as businesses explored emerging markets, local officials said.
Foreign trade of the economic powerhouse totaled 971.48 billion yuan (141 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 9.2 percent year on year, said Xia Zongyuan, spokesman of the Shandong provincial government.
The half-year growth was 4.1 percentage points higher than the first quarter growth pace and 5.3 percentage points higher than the country's trade growth in the six months.
Its exports and imports grew to 9.2 and 9.1 percent, respectively.
Guan Zhaoquan, deputy director of the provincial development and reform commission, said local businesses have stepped up efforts to explore emerging markets while the improved trade facilitation has helped to offset the negative impact from the international market.
Despite a number of uncertainties, the coastal province is expected to report stable trade growth with better trade structure for the whole of 2019, said Guan.
Xia said local authorities will support enterprises to tap the Belt and Road markets and vigorously develop cross-border e-commerce and services trade to nurture new trade growth drivers.
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