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January trade in major setback on shrinking demand
By Wang Yanlin |
February 10, 2012, Friday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
CHINA'S trade suffered a strong setback in January as both exports and imports dropped amid shrinking external demand and a slowing domestic economy.
The Spring Festival holiday, which distorted the usual working days, also contributed to the decline last month, but it can't change the broad picture of China's weakening trade, analysts said.
Exports in January retreated 0.5 percent from a year earlier to US$149.9 billion, the first drop since November of 2009, the General Administration of Customs said today.
Imports lost an even bigger share of 15 percent year on year to US$122.7 billion, compared with the growth of 11.8 percent in December.
Mainly due to weak imports, China's trade surplus tripled from a year earlier to US$27.2 billion.
"The sharp change is a result of the Spring Festival, which reduced the working days to only 17 days last month, four days less than a year earlier," the bureau said in a statement.
Taking seasonal factors into consideration, the bureau calculated that China's exports expanded by 10.3 percent and imports edged up 1.5 percent.
However, such adjusted data still can't pacify worries among economists and market watchers.
"China's worse-than-expected imports reflected the rather weak domestic demand," said Zhou Hao, an economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. "Given higher fuel costs in China starting this month and diminishing hopes of more aggressive easing policies, the outlook of China's manufacturing is dim. It thus makes the country's trade prospect gloomy as well."
China's Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, rebounded unexpectedly to 4.5 percent annually in January, halting a downward trend for five consecutive months and denting hopes of more easing policies immediately.
"Such a trade performance may invite more cautious consideration of policy moves," said Tang Jianwei, an analyst at Bank of Communications.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming said yesterday that China would continue to support exporters through providing tax incentives, as the January trade data "can hardly make us optimistic."
The Spring Festival holiday, which distorted the usual working days, also contributed to the decline last month, but it can't change the broad picture of China's weakening trade, analysts said.
Exports in January retreated 0.5 percent from a year earlier to US$149.9 billion, the first drop since November of 2009, the General Administration of Customs said today.
Imports lost an even bigger share of 15 percent year on year to US$122.7 billion, compared with the growth of 11.8 percent in December.
Mainly due to weak imports, China's trade surplus tripled from a year earlier to US$27.2 billion.
"The sharp change is a result of the Spring Festival, which reduced the working days to only 17 days last month, four days less than a year earlier," the bureau said in a statement.
Taking seasonal factors into consideration, the bureau calculated that China's exports expanded by 10.3 percent and imports edged up 1.5 percent.
However, such adjusted data still can't pacify worries among economists and market watchers.
"China's worse-than-expected imports reflected the rather weak domestic demand," said Zhou Hao, an economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. "Given higher fuel costs in China starting this month and diminishing hopes of more aggressive easing policies, the outlook of China's manufacturing is dim. It thus makes the country's trade prospect gloomy as well."
China's Consumer Price Index, the main gauge of inflation, rebounded unexpectedly to 4.5 percent annually in January, halting a downward trend for five consecutive months and denting hopes of more easing policies immediately.
"Such a trade performance may invite more cautious consideration of policy moves," said Tang Jianwei, an analyst at Bank of Communications.
Commerce Minister Chen Deming said yesterday that China would continue to support exporters through providing tax incentives, as the January trade data "can hardly make us optimistic."
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