China Trade Growth Slumps in April [View all]

[alp227]

Source: NYT

China’s exports and imports both grew considerably more slowly than expected last month, the Chinese government announced on Thursday, in one of the clearest signals yet of lingering and possibly worsening weakness in the world’s second biggest economy.

China has been the largest single contributor to global economic growth in recent years, and a sustained slowdown in its economy could pose problems for many other countries. Particularly exposed are countries that export commodities like iron ore and oil, and depend on demand from China’s voracious steel mills and ever-growing ranks of car owners.

Exports rose slowly in April from a year earlier, climbing 4.9 percent, China’s General Administration of Customs announced on Thursday. That was roughly half the growth that economists had expected.

But the big surprise on Thursday came in the Chinese announcement that imports grew only 0.3 percent in April from a year earlier – nothing close to economists’ predictions of an increase of 11 percent.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/business/global/china-trade-growth-slumps-in-april.html