China is the world’s second-largest economy and a key driver of global growth, with an outsized impact in resource-rich supplier countries such as Australia/XIHUA-File
Two-way trade for the first six months of the year fell 6.9 percent to 11.53 trillion yuan ($1.85 trillion), the General Administration of Customs said.
China is the world’s second-largest economy and a key driver of global growth, with an outsized impact in resource-rich supplier countries such as Australia.
Monday’s result was far below Beijing’s official target for the year for growth of “about 6.0 percent”. That figure was a reduction from the 7.5 percent goal set for 2014 – when trade values expanded only 3.4 percent, the third consecutive year the target had been missed.
“Commodity prices fell significantly, dragging down growth in import value,” Customs spokesman Huang Songping told reporters, adding that “sluggish foreign demand” was a “major factor” affecting trade growth.
“Export costs remained high, undermining export competitiveness,” he said, adding that by June 30, the yuan had strengthened 0.2 percent against the dollar from the start of the year, 6.9 percent against the euro and 2.2 percent against the yen.
“The downward pressures on the domestic economy increased and the demand for imports was weak,” he said.
For June, China’s imports fell for the eighth consecutive month, Customs said, dropping 6.7 percent year-on-year to 890.67 billion yuan.
But exports increased 2.1 percent to 1.17 trillion yuan on-year – snapping a run of three monthly declines in a row – and the country’s trade surplus leaped 45.0 percent to 284.2 billion yuan.
Chinese stock markets have been in turmoil in recent weeks, but the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.49 percent in late morning, maintaining a positive tone after the figures were released.
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