China's trade with SCO members up 26% in Jan-Aug

BEIJING -- China's trade with other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) witnessed rapid growth in the first eight months of the year, official data showed Friday.

The trade volume jumped 26 percent year on year to 1.73 trillion yuan (about $250 billion) in the January-August period, according to the General Administration of Customs. The growth rate was 15.9 percentage points higher than that of China's total foreign trade.

China's trade with other SCO members accounted for 6.3 percent of its total foreign trade in the period, up 0.8 percentage points from a year ago.

Last month alone, the trade volume hit a record high of 256.79 billion yuan, up 28.9 percent year on year.

A breakdown of the January-August figures shows that China imported 117 million tonnes of crude oil, coal and natural gas from other SCO members, with the combined value accounting for 56.9 percent of the total imports from these countries. Meanwhile, farm produce imports made up 7.5 percent of the total.

In terms of exports, China's mechanical and electrical goods, labor-intensive products, and basic organic chemicals accounted for 52.6 percent, 19.1 percent and 5.9 percent of the total exports to other SCO members, respectively.

Founded in 2001, the SCO now has eight full members, namely China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, four observer countries and multiple dialogue partners.