--FILE--un jouet chinois locaux résident achète des moutons pour Spring Festival pour célébrer la Nouvelle Année lunaire chinoise dans une boutique à l'Yiwu International Trade
--FILE--A local Chinese resident buys toy sheep for Spring Festival to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in a shop at the Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu city, east China's Zhejiang province, 30 January 2015. Middle Eastern businessmen have become a major force in Yiwu, China's largest wholesale marketplace for toys and cheap accessories. Over half of the Zhejiang Province city's exports in 2014 were shipped to Arab countries, reports the state-run Global Times. Last year, 51% of Yiwu's exports headed to Arab countries, up from 49.6% in 2013, as the business of traders from the region recorded a boom, said the report. Wang Wen, executive dean of Renmin University's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said two trends have fueled the growing trade connection: Arab countries have become more dependent on Chinese goods since the 2008 global financial crisis and the Chinese yuan's credibility as a currency has improved. A Muslim cleric in Yiwu estimated that there are now 30, 000 to 40, 000 Arab businessmen in the city, some of whom have settled there, and, according to local vendor Zhou Xianglong, their reputations are better than those of their African and Indian counterparts.
