China's trade with BRICS countries up 26%

BEIJING - China's trade with BRICS countries experienced fast growth in the first seven months, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Trade volume between China and BRICS countries increased 26 percent year on year to hit $167.07 billion during the January-July period, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press briefing.

As of the end of July, China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) to BRICS countries had reached $870 million, Gao said. China's non-financial ODI dropped 44.3 percent year on year to $57.2 billion in the first seven months of 2017, official data showed.

"There is huge investment potential among BRICS countries," said Gao.

According to Gao, BRICS members are expected to reach agreements on trade promotion, investment facilitation, economic and technological cooperation as well as the multilateral trading system during the upcoming summit, which will be held in China's southeastern coastal city of Xiamen from Sept 3 to 5.

Since 2009, BRICS summits have been held annually. The foreign, finance and security ministers of the nations also meet regularly.

In past years, the five BRICS members have doubled their combined percentage of the world's GDP to 23 percent of the total.