Bloomberg: China’s exports fell for a third straight month in July amid a slump in global demand, while imports plunged as domestic pressures also undermine the economy’s recovery. Overseas shipments dropped 14.5% in dollar terms last month from a year earlier — the worst decline since February 2020 — while imports contracted 12.4%, the customs administration said Tuesday. That left a trade surplus of $80.6 billion for the month. Economists polled by Bloomberg had forecast that exports would drop 13.2% while imports would shrink 5.6%.
The deepened slump in imports “is a reflection of weak domestic demand,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd. “The overall consumption and investment growth probably both stayed quite weak in China.”
Some economists also said the decline in imports were driven by falling commodity prices. Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong led losses in Asia on Tuesday. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was down 1.6% as of 11:39 a.m. local time. The onshore CSI 300 Index was little changed at the mid-day break. The yuan traded offshore yuan didn’t move much, having lost 0.3% earlier in the morning to sit at 7.2214 per dollar.