China’s exports fell by 6.1 percent year-on-year to 1.20 trillion yuan in August, Customs announced.
The latest figures show further weakness in the economy.
But the drop was slightly above the median forecast of a 6.6 percent decline in dollar terms in a survey of economists by Bloomberg News, and an improvement from July’s 8.9 percent fall in yuan terms.
China is the world’s biggest trader in goods and its exports have been a major driver of its decades-long economic boom.
Authorities are now trying to rebalance the economy to one where domestic consumer demand is the main force for hopefully more sustainable growth, but the transition is not proving easy and global markets have been rocked by worries over slowing expansion.
“Exports to the US and the Association of South-East Asian Nations continued to grow but shipments to the EU and Japan declined,” Customs said in a statement on its website.
Imports fell by 14.3 percent in yuan terms year-on-year, Customs said, attributing it to widespread commodity price falls.
It was the 10th consecutive monthly decline in imports.
The trade surplus grew by 20.1 percent to 368.0 billion yuan, Customs said.
Chinese policymakers have been trying to reassure financial markets that their currency is stable and that the recent stock market turbulence is easing.
Stocks have fallen around 40 percent since mid-June, with the Shanghai Composite Index hovering around the 3,000 point level, having been above 5,000 less than three months ago.
Shares initially declined on Tuesday but rallied later in the day to finish almost 3 percent higher – though trading volumes in both stocks and futures were down sharply.
The CSI300 index of the biggest stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed up 2.57 percent, while Shanghai was up 2.93 percent.
Volume in the Shanghai market was the lowest since February, a month when trading is usually thin due to the Chinese New Year Festival.
The stock futures market was hit by an abrupt reversal in policy that caused trading volumes to collapse. Last Wednesday, China raised the margin requirements for futures not being used for hedging purposes to 40 percent of the contract’s value from 30 percent.
The futures contract for the CSI300 index maturing in September has seen volumes dive, logging 28,957 transactions on Tuesday, down almost 100 percent from a week ago. On Aug. 25, when markets were in a major sell-off, the contract saw 2.43 million transactions.
Chinese authorities have rolled out a series of measures to bring a sense of calm back to their stock markets and reduce short-term speculation.
The post China Data Remains Soft appeared first on Live Trading News.