Foreign trade in Yantai, Shandong province grew significantly in the first nine months of this year, according to a news conference hosted by the local government on Oct 29.

The city's exports and imports totaled 314.34 billion yuan ($49.11 billion), with a year-on-year growth of 42.8 percent and ranking second in Shandong province.

From January to September, the city's actual utilization of foreign capital reached $1.8 billion, up 37.8 year-on-year and was among the top three in Shandong.

During the period, the city introduced 143 foreign-invested projects each worth 10 million yuan. The contracted foreign investment totaled $4.52 billion, up 57.7 percent year-on-year.

A total of 105 new projects were funded by Japan and South Korea, with the actual use of Japanese and South Korean capital reaching $165 million.

In the first three quarters, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 230.44 billion yuan, up 18.7 percent year-on-year.

The online retail sales reached 24.28 billion yuan, up 20.4 percent, accounting for 6.6 percent of the province's online retail sales.