Plunge in mainland trade
11-03-2009
The decline in China's exports accelerated last month as a slump in global demand worsened, adding to the pressure on Beijing to boost the economy with its massive stimulus plan. Exports plunged 25.7 percent from a year earlier, compared with January's 17.5 percent fall. The customs bureau said imports fell by 24.1 percent -smaller than January's stunning 43 percent plunge but still a blow to China's trading partners. "This is clearly worse than expected," said Robert Subbaraman, an analyst with Nomura International in Hong Kong. "We were looking for a rise (in exports) of 1.2 percent. The market consensus was looking for a rise of one percent." China's trade surplus in February stood at US$4.84 billion - a massive drop from US$39.1 billion the previous month. It was down by nearly half compared with last year's February surplus, which was US$8.56 billion. "China has finally and spectacularly succumbed to the world financial crisis on the export side, and it's difficult to see why that would improve in the short term," said Paul Cavey, an economist at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong.
