Total retail sales of consumer goods in the prefecture-level city of Suzhou – located in East China's Jiangsu province – came in at 446.73 billion yuan ($69.33 billion) in the first half of 2021, up 28.1 percent year-on-year.
Total exports and imports increased 24.5 percent to $179.13 billion during the period, of which exports totaled $104.43 billion, up 27.1 percent, while imports reached $74.69 billion, up 21 percent.
When denominated in renminbi, total foreign trade increased 15.1 percent to 1.16 trillion yuan in the period. Of this, exports totaled 677.31 billion yuan, up 17.5 percent, while imports reached 484.32 billion yuan, up 11.9 percent.
Foreign direct investment in the city increased 35.2 percent year-on-year to $6.09 billion. The city welcomed the launch of 1,256 of foreign-funded projects and the inflow of newly registered foreign capital of $18.91 billion – up 26.4 percent and 66.8 percent, respectively, year-on-year.
Meanwhile, it invested in 129 new projects in foreign countries, up 1.57 percent last year and the contracted foreign investment totaled $1.45 billion, up 116.5 percent, hitting a record high – to account for 41.61 percent and 52.11 percent, respectively, in the province.