China trade down for June

China’s import and export trade has seen an abrupt decline in June, symptomatic of the global economic downturn, Philstar reports.

Customs data reported that exports declined by 3.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2012 and imports fell by 0.7 per cent.

Both figures came in below private sector forecasts, which had estimated low single-digit growth of exports rising 3.5 per cent and imports up to 1.5 per cent.

While analysts had anticipated reduced trade figures due to a crackdown by the Chinese government on exporters misreporting data, these estimates of modest growth had taken this into account.

Falsifying data has been a problem as some exporters look to evade currency controls and bring undeclared money into China.

Export trade in June was down 13.5 per cent from May, and imports down 8.2 per cent.

China’s global trade surplus was reduced by 12.4 per cent to US$27.1bn.