China’s foreign trade is expected to post stable growth this year, despite unprecedented¹ challenges, including high raw material costs and fierce competition from Southeast Asian countries, analysts² and trade experts said on Wednesday.

The profitability of exporters in most sectors⁴ has improved during the second quarter, according to a survey by the China Council for the Promotion⁵ of International Trade in Beijing. Major challenges facing foreign trade enterprises, such as high costs of logistics, have eased, the survey showed.

“It is worth noting that trade data got better not only from quarter to quarter, but also from month to month during the second quarter. June is likely to have witnessed a strong foreign trade rebound⁶ and more energetic economic recovery,” said Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

The survey showed more than 25 percent of enterprises registered positive quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, while nearly 20 percent said they have secured profit growth from a quarter ago.

More than 26 percent of the respondents are confident about year-on-year revenue growth, and about 28 percent said they expect their revenues to be at least the same as last year’s level.

Liu predicted that China’s foreign trade is likely to exceed 40 trillion yuan ($5.97 trillion) this year, with policy measures showing off the advantages of the nation’s resilient supply and industrial chains.

The exporters also benefited from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership⁷ agreement, which took effect on Jan 1, and interest rate increases by the United States, which Liu believes will facilitate China’s exports.

The survey found that new trade formats⁸ such as cross-border e-commerce provided strong support to export growth, and the nation’s policies to ease the burdens of foreign trade enterprises, such as ensuring smooth logistics and speeding up tax and fee reductions, have boosted the sector³ as well.

More than 40 percent of enterprises in the survey said they have become familiar with RCEP rules, up 17.69 percentage points from the first quarter. About 54 percent plan to use those rules for their benefit.