21 Aug 2002, [CND, 08/13/02] China's export grew by 28.1 percent in July over the same period last year, reaching a total of US$29.2 billion, said the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

Foreign direct investment also saw another surge by 22 percent over last July. This July saw the highest month growth rate in two years. There had been concerns about the export sector due to the shrinking demand in the US market.

On the other hand, import has also seen big increase of 28.9 percent, totaling US$26.99 billion. The trade surplus gained another 17 percent to US$2.2 billion for July. (Dong LIU)