China’s exports logged an unexpected fall on weak demand in April and imports declined more than expected adding to hopes of more economic stimulus.
Exports fell 6.2 percent in April from last year in yuan terms, data from the General Administration of Customs showed Friday. Economists had forecast a 0.9 percent rise for April.
Imports registered a double-digit decrease of 16.1 percent annually, sharper than an expected drop of 8.4 percent. Consequently, the trade surplus came in at CNY 210.2 billion, below the consensus forecast of CNY 173.8 billion.
In U.S. dollar terms, exports were down 6.4 percent from a year ago, slower than March’s 15 percent decline. Exports were forecast to grow 1.6 percent.
At the same time, imports declined 16.2 percent versus 12.7 percent fall in March. The annual decline also exceeded a 12.2 percent fall forecast by economists.
As a result, the trade surplus increased to $34.1 billion in April from $3.1 billion in March. The surplus was expected to rise to $39.6 billion.
The data suggested that both foreign and domestic demand softened going into the second quarter, Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics said.
Looking ahead, the economist is relatively sanguine over the outlook for Chinese trade despite today’s disappointing data. Evans-Pritchard expects negative export growth to prove short lived and import growth to begin gradual recovery despite slowing investment growth.
The second-largest economy grew only 7 percent in the first quarter. Although it met the government target of around 7 percent, this was the weakest expansion in six years and slower than the 7.3 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The World Bank forecast China to expand at a moderate pace of 7.1 percent in 2015 and 7 percent next year.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com