Inner Mongolia's foreign trade grows 8.6 pct in first three quarters

Imports and exports of northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region increased to 82.17 billion yuan (about 11.62 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of this year, up 8.6 percent year on year, the regional statistics bureau said Thursday.

Statistics showed the imports of the region increased to 54.59 billion yuan, up 13.8 percent, while the exports declined by 0.4 percent to 27.58 billion yuan from January to September.

The region's imports of coal reached 16.32 billion yuan, up 22.8 percent. Imports of timber lowered 5.3 percent to 6.7 billion yuan.