China’s imports and exports have fallen much faster than expected in July, a threat to the growth prospects of the economic powerhouse and a pressure factor for the Executive to launch new stimuli to increase demand.
According to customs data, in July imports fell by 12.4% year-on-year, to 256,252 million euros, below the 5% drop expected by analysts. It is the biggest decline since January, when stores and factories were closed due to the covid. Exports have fallen by 14.5%, above the 12.5% ??forecast and the worst data since February 2020. They remain at 182,950 million euros. When combining the data, Chinese trade fell 13.6%.
The Asian giant reduced its exports to the European Union by 20.6%, while imports fell by 3%. In the case of the US, Chinese exports decreased by 23% and imports by 11.2%.
The opposite side is in Russia. Sales in July grew 51.8% annually, to 9.4 billion euros, while imports from Russia fell 8%, to 8.4 billion.
“Most measures of export orders point to a much larger decline in foreign demand than customs data has so far reflected,” said Julian, head of China’s economy at economic research firm Capital Economics. Evans-Pritchard.
In the second quarter of 2023, the economy grew slowly as internal and external demand weakened, which is why analysts lowered their growth forecasts for the year and the country’s leaders promised more support measures.
Third-quarter growth could slow further due to weakening construction, manufacturing and services activity, foreign direct investment, and industrial profits.
Last week, the state planner said stimulus measures would be taken, but investors have so far been disappointed by proposed expansion of consumption in the auto, real estate and service sectors.
