China spends less on imports on falling commodity prices

(MENAFN) Customs data showed that price slumps in the global commodity market continued to allow China to spend less while importing more, helping China save on enormous import bills, Xinhua reported.

In the first ten months of this year, China imported 252.6 million tons of crude oil, an increase of 9.2 percent from a year earlier, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

In October alone, China imported 24.1 million tons of crude oil, a decrease of 12.7 percent from the previous month. But the import value in October fell by a larger margin of 16.8 percent September's to USD17.05 billion.

Data also showed that China's iron ore imports in the January-October period surged 16.5 percent from a year ago to 778.4 tons, while import value shrank 5.3 percent to USD82 billion.