FINANCIAL TIMES: China’s imports and exports both contracted in March, with trade data falling well short of forecasts and rattling nerves over the state of the world’s second-biggest economy.
Exports decreased 6.6 per cent in March from a year earlier, missing forecasts for a 4.9 per cent rise. It was the second consecutive weak month following February’s 18 per cent year-on-year contraction…
The weak export figures at the start of the year have sent analysts scurrying to downgrade their forecasts for China’s economy. They now expect it to grow 7.4 per cent this year, its weakest since 1990 and down from 7.7 per cent last year…
Exports, a key engine of Chinese growth in the early 2000s after the country joined the World Trade Organisation, have gradually waned in importance as the domestic economy has mushroomed in size. But with investment and consumption on track to slow this year, predictions of robust Chinese growth in 2014 were based on support from resilient external demand… (more)
