China's commerce minister said Tuesday the country's foreign trade was expected to have grown 18 percent in 2008 despite the negative impact of the global economic crisis, state media reported.
Chen Deming estimated that foreign trade increased to 2.6 trillion dollars this year, and that foreign investment in the country had exceeded 90 billion dollars, a 20 percent hike year-on-year, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Speaking at a conference, Chen said steps would be taken to maintain stable export growth in 2009, including making more effort to explore emerging markets in south and central Asia, the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe.
China's growth is being severely affected by the global economic crisis, especially as overseas markets for the nation's exports begin to dry up.
Growth of the heavily export-dependent Chinese economy eased to nine percent in the third quarter of this year, the lowest in more than five years.
The World Bank has forecast that the Chinese economy next year will grow by just 7.5 percent, a level not seen in 19 years.
