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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>China exports fall for 5th month
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>But decline in March less than February's record 25.7% drop </TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
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Beijing says exports of labour-intensive products such as garments rose last month from a year ago and that trade figures are showing 'positive signs'. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->BEIJING: China's exports fell for a fifth month in March, adding urgency to government efforts to stimulate domestic demand to revive growth in the world's third-biggest economy.
Overseas sales declined 17.1 per cent to US$90.3 billion (S$136.7 billion) from a year earlier, the Customs Bureau said on its website. Imports fell 25.1 per cent, leaving a trade surplus of US$18.6 billion.
Collapsing world trade and the nation's slowest economic expansion in seven years have cost the jobs of millions of factory workers and prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to roll out a 4 trillion yuan (S$887 billion) stimulus package. To spur consumption, China is subsidising rural purchases of television sets and refrigerators and plans a 29 per cent increase in welfare spending this year.
Last month's export fall was less than February's record 25.7 per cent drop. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 economists was for a 20 per cent decline. February's trade surplus was US$4.8 billion.
The trade figures showed 'positive signs', the Customs Bureau said yesterday, adding that exports of labour-intensive products such as garments, furniture and shoes rose from a year earlier. The value of imports stabilised, it said.
Seasonally adjusted figures showed a 32.8 per cent rise in exports from the previous month and a 14 per cent increase in imports, the bureau said.
But it is too early to judge when the economy will bottom out, a People's Bank of China official said in remarks published yesterday, Reuters reported.
Mr Wang Hongzhang, head of the discipline inspection committee of the ruling Communist Party's branch at the central bank, said policymakers faced a tough task to ensure that China achieved its goal of 8 per cent growth this year.
In comments posted on the central bank's website, Mr Wang said the global financial crisis had not exhausted itself and the external environment for China's growth could deteriorate further.
The export numbers may reflect a 'modest improvement in global demand' and restocking by US retailers, said Ms Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong.
Shipments to the European Union fell 20.2 per cent from a year earlier; those to the United States fell 12.6 per cent.
Some economists expect China's exports to revive later this year as the global economy stabilises and trade finance improves.
The Group of 20 nations pledged this month to make at least US$250 billion available in the next two years to support the finance of trade through export credit agencies and development banks such as the World Bank.
The 'collapse of global trade and China's exports in the last few months was not in small part due to a freeze in trade credit and aggressive de-stocking abroad as a result of extreme uncertainty', said economist Wang Tao at UBS in Beijing. 'As expectations start to stabilise, we expect to see export orders rebound in the coming months.' BLOOMBERG
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>But decline in March less than February's record 25.7% drop </TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Beijing says exports of labour-intensive products such as garments rose last month from a year ago and that trade figures are showing 'positive signs'. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->BEIJING: China's exports fell for a fifth month in March, adding urgency to government efforts to stimulate domestic demand to revive growth in the world's third-biggest economy.
Overseas sales declined 17.1 per cent to US$90.3 billion (S$136.7 billion) from a year earlier, the Customs Bureau said on its website. Imports fell 25.1 per cent, leaving a trade surplus of US$18.6 billion.
Collapsing world trade and the nation's slowest economic expansion in seven years have cost the jobs of millions of factory workers and prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to roll out a 4 trillion yuan (S$887 billion) stimulus package. To spur consumption, China is subsidising rural purchases of television sets and refrigerators and plans a 29 per cent increase in welfare spending this year.
Last month's export fall was less than February's record 25.7 per cent drop. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 economists was for a 20 per cent decline. February's trade surplus was US$4.8 billion.
The trade figures showed 'positive signs', the Customs Bureau said yesterday, adding that exports of labour-intensive products such as garments, furniture and shoes rose from a year earlier. The value of imports stabilised, it said.
Seasonally adjusted figures showed a 32.8 per cent rise in exports from the previous month and a 14 per cent increase in imports, the bureau said.
But it is too early to judge when the economy will bottom out, a People's Bank of China official said in remarks published yesterday, Reuters reported.
Mr Wang Hongzhang, head of the discipline inspection committee of the ruling Communist Party's branch at the central bank, said policymakers faced a tough task to ensure that China achieved its goal of 8 per cent growth this year.
In comments posted on the central bank's website, Mr Wang said the global financial crisis had not exhausted itself and the external environment for China's growth could deteriorate further.
The export numbers may reflect a 'modest improvement in global demand' and restocking by US retailers, said Ms Jing Ulrich, head of China equities at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong.
Shipments to the European Union fell 20.2 per cent from a year earlier; those to the United States fell 12.6 per cent.
Some economists expect China's exports to revive later this year as the global economy stabilises and trade finance improves.
The Group of 20 nations pledged this month to make at least US$250 billion available in the next two years to support the finance of trade through export credit agencies and development banks such as the World Bank.
The 'collapse of global trade and China's exports in the last few months was not in small part due to a freeze in trade credit and aggressive de-stocking abroad as a result of extreme uncertainty', said economist Wang Tao at UBS in Beijing. 'As expectations start to stabilise, we expect to see export orders rebound in the coming months.' BLOOMBERG
