Recruiting in China

Shanghai's trade volume hit a record in December, which helped the city post better growth in annual trade than the national figure, Shanghai Customs data showed.

Imports through Shanghai were a record 186.81 billion yuan ($27.3 billion) in December, lifting the monthly trade value over 300 billion yuan for the first time to 306.03 billion yuan, customs said.

For 2016, the city's imports and exports totaled 2.87 trillion yuan, up 2.7 percent from a year ago. The rise reversed a 2.1 percent decline in 2015.

The city's imports rose 5.2 percent to 1.66 trillion yuan last year, faster than the national gain of 0.6 percent.

Exports dipped 0.5 percent to 1.21 trillion yuan, but the drop was smaller than the national decline of 1.5 percent.

Trade with the US, Europe and Japan rose 2.3 percent to 1.4 trillion yuan last year, accounting for 47.7 percent of the city's total foreign trade.

The city's trade with the 22 markets having free trade agreements with China rose 5.4 percent to 1.1 trillion yuan.

Shanghai's exports of integrated circuits rose 8.5 percent, medical devices gained 3.8 percent, and solar battery grew 1.5 percent, customs said.

Foreign trade through the free trade zone rose 5.9 percent to 783.68 billion yuan last year, accounting for 27.3 percent of the city's total trade volume.