|
CHINA> National
![]() |
|
China's exports slump, investment rises
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 15:24 China's exports tumbled in February as the world's third-largest economy felt the full force of the global financial crisis, but capital spending accelerated with the help of the government's massive stimulus package.
With the world experiencing its deepest recession in decades, pessimists said the slump in exports was unlikely to end soon. Some said China could even record a trade deficit before long.
"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. Exports in February slid 25.7 percent from a year earlier, dwarfing forecasts of a 5.0 percent fall, while imports dropped 24.1 percent, close to projections of a 25.0 percent decline. The drop in exports was the steepest since bankers started keeping records in 1993. The resulting trade surplus was $4.84 billion, a three-year low, compared with $39.1 billion in January and a record $40.1 billion in November, the customs administration said on its website, www.customs.gov.cn. The drop in the surplus to well below the forecast $27.3 billion figure, sparked broad dollar buying. Big Impact Chinese exporters had hitherto fared better than others, such as South Korea and Japan, encouraging conjecture that cost-conscious shoppers in the West were trading down to cheaper made-in-China goods. But Isaac Meng, an economist with BNP Paribas in Beijing, said it was unrealistic to expect China to remain immune to what he called the sharpest drop in global trade in 80 years. "It will have a pretty big impact on Chinese domestic demand," Meng said of last month's dive in overseas shipments. "Probably 60-70 million workers directly work in these export sectors, so there will be secondary impacts on capital expenditure, employment and consumption," he said. The government estimates that 20 million migrant workers, who labour mainly in export factories and in construction, have lost their jobs so far because of a collapse in global demand and a slump in the domestic real estate market. Mei Xinyu, a researcher with the Ministry of Commerce, said the slump in exports was likely to last at least until mid-year. "Any recovery in the export sector will not take place until the third or even the fourth quarter of this year," he said. |
孝义市| 搜索| 迁西县| 乳源| 宁陕县| 华坪县| 蕲春县| 吉林省| 巩留县| 株洲县| 沧州市| 米林县| 滁州市| 阿克陶县| 措美县| 顺昌县| 祁连县| 齐河县| 屏东县| 广宁县| 高雄县| 当阳市| 温泉县| 金华市| 奉节县| 辛集市| 齐河县| 永仁县| 平顺县| 沂水县| 泸水县| 昌黎县| 砀山县| 江北区| 前郭尔| 来安县| 博兴县| 凯里市| 青河县| 瓦房店市| 定南县|