Import of goods to China 2014-2024

In 2024, China imported approximately 2.59 trillion U.S. dollars worth of goods. This indicated an increase in import value by about 1.1 percent compared to the previous year.

Import development in China

In 2013, China had surpassed the United States as the world’s largest goods trader. That year, China’s imports and exports had summed up to more than four trillion U.S. dollars. There has been a fairly steady increase in imports over the last decade with the exception of 2009 and 2015-2016. China’s imports of goods had decreased by around eleven percent due to the global financial crisis in 2009, before recovering to a positive growth in 2010. In 2015, Chinese imports went down by 13.2 percent due to the global uncertainty following several geopolitical conflicts, disease outbreaks, and terrorism, according to the commerce minister of China.

In 2023, China's import contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) ranged at around 14 percent. In the same year, Chinese exports exceeded the country's imports by around 822.1 billion U.S. dollars creating a hefty merchandise trade surplus. ASEAN and the European Union countries were China’s most important import trade partners, with imports worth approximately 2.7 trillion yuan and 1.9 trillion yuan respectively in 2023.