BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese exports plunged more than expected last month, official figures showed yesterday.
Shipments sank 7.5 per cent on-year, while imports shrank 1.9 per cent, the General Administration of Customs said.
A Bloomberg survey of economists had forecast exports to fall just 1.9 per cent and imports to rise one per cent.
The slump was “to a large extent… due to the fact that March this year has two working days less than March last year”, said Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management Zhiwei Zhang.
“The working day effect distorts the picture, as it often does in the first quarter due to Chinese holidays.” He added that comparing Chinese trade over the first quarter of the year instead of a monthly basis “shows a reasonable story about external demand”.
Consumer prices narrowly averted falling into deflation territory last month in a rare bright spot for policymakers.
Beijing has set an annual GDP growth target of around five percent for this year, and quarterly growth figures are expected in the coming days.
