Guangdong’s total imports and exports reached a value of 5.4 trillion yuan (US$752 billion) in the first seven months of the year, according to the Guangdong Branch of the General Administration of Customs. The figure represents a year-on-year growth of 4.3 percent.
The province’s foreign trade grew slightly faster than the national average of 3.5 percent this year. Enterprises in Guangdong accounted for 21 percent of the nation’s cumulative trade value.
Exports totalled 3.44 trillion yuan (US$479 billion), representing a 1.7 percent growth, while imports increased 9.3 percent to 1.96 trillion yuan (US$273 billion).
[See more: China’s exports defy expectations in July, buoyed by non-US trade]
Guangdong’s top export partners were members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to which the province exported 889.23 billion yuan (US$124 billion), a 5.8 percent increase year-on-year. The second-most exports went to Hong Kong, with 675.48 billion yuan (US$95 billion), an 8.5 percent increase.
Trade with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries also rose 4 percent, reaching 2.1 trillion yuan (US$293 billion).
In 2025, Beijing notably upgraded trade frameworks with members of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) and updated the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Macao, Hong Kong and the mainland, which may have contributed to Guangdong’s increase in trade.
