China’s exports fell 3.1 per cent year-on-year in June with imports also declining, the government said on Wednesday, in the latest signs of slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
The government recorded exports valued at $174.3 billion in June and imports worth $147.2 billion, down 0.7 per cent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said.
The fall in monthly exports was the first negative figure since January 2012.
China’s total foreign trade grew to almost $2 trillion in the first six months of the year, up 8.6 per cent year-on-year, the customs administration said.
But trade growth slowed from January to June, hitting 13.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter and just 4.3 per cent in the second quarter, administration spokesman Zheng Yuesheng said.
The slowdown was caused by weak global demand, rising foreign exchange and labour costs for Chinese exporters, as well as “various trade frictions,” Zheng said.
He said China’s trade faced challenges for the rest of this year, showing the need for the government to press ahead with rebalancing the economy away from its long reliance on exports and investment in infrastructure.
In remarks published by state media on Wednesday, Premier Li Keqiang urged the government to “make sure the economic growth rate, employment and other indicators don’t slip below our lower limits and inflation doesn’t exceed our upper limit.” The ruling Communist Party would focus on “adjusting the structure, pushing reforms and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the economy,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying.
Li urged stronger promotion of information technology applications in industry and the government’s “new-type urbanisation that puts people first.” China should develop service industries, eliminate “backward production” and speed up reforms in administration, taxation, finance and pricing systems to allow “more vigorous” markets and more private investment, he said.
China recorded weaker-than-expected economic growth of 7.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year. Many analysts expect second-quarter growth, scheduled to be announced on Monday, to slow further to about 7.5 per cent.
The government set targets of 8 per cent for trade growth and 7.5 per cent for growth in gross domestic product this year.
Annual economic growth fell to 7.8 per cent last year, the slowest since 1999.