As the leaders of BRICS nations concluded their summit to enhance trade ties, China today said that its trade with India and other three members of the bloc surged by 45.8% to reach $59.9 billion in the first quarter of this year.
The first-quarter foreign trade growth between China and the other four nations of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), was 16.3 percentage points higher than China's average foreign trade growth during the period, China's General Administration of Customs said in a statement.
During the first three months, China's imports from the other BRICS countries reached $33.05 billion, up 57.2% year on year.
Exports to those countries hit $26.85 billion Yuan, up 33.8%.
China's Q1 trade deficit with the other four nations reached $6.2 billion, up by more than five times the amount in the same period of last year.
In March alone, China's imports from these nations rose 48.8% to reach $11.93 billion, while exports grew 48.5% to hit $9.93 billion, creating $2 billion in deficit.
Much of China's imports from BRICS countries were raw materials, including crude oil, iron ore, coal and minerals.
China promised to address India's complaint of growing trade deficit of over $20 billion last year by permitting market access to Indian IT and Pharmaceuticals.
China has reported an over all quarterly trade deficit of $1.02 billion, this year, the first in seven years as it settles to rebalance its export oriented economy to boost domestic consumption in the next five years.
The $1.02 billion deficit from January to March this year was in contrast to trade surplus of $13.91 billion in the first quarter of last year.
