Second largest growth engine China’s exports dip 25.4% to 6-year-low

China's foreign trade continued to decline due to economic slowdown as exports from the global trading giant slumped 25.4 per cent year-on-year to $126.3 billion in February, the lowest in six years. The decline in exports widened from a 6.6 per cent decrease in January, but that of imports narrowed from 14.4 per cent a month earlier, figures released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

In dollar-denominated terms, China's exports fell 25.4 per cent from a year earlier in February, worsening from the 11.2-per cent decline in January. Imports dropped 13.8 per cent, a milder decrease than 18.8 per cent in January. The monthly foreign trade surplus shrank by 43.3 per cent year on year to 209.5 billion yuan in February, down from 406.2 billion yuan a month earlier.

Total foreign trade value in February fell 15.7 per cent year-on-year to 1.43 trillion yuan, a steeper decline than the 9.8-per cent contraction seen in January. Trade with China's biggest trade partner, the European Union, dropped 9.7 per cent year on year in the first two months of 2016, GAC data showed. In the same period, trade with the United States, its second biggest trade partner, went down 12.2 per cent and that with the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the third largest trade partner, dipped 14.9 per cent. Trade by private firms, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the country's total, slipped 7.3 per cent year on year in the January to February period.

State-owned companies fared worse, posting a 21.4-per cent plunge in trade, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Foreign trade in the first two months was 12.6 per cent lower than a year earlier at 3.31 trillion yuan, with exports down 13.1 per cent to 1.96 trillion yuan and imports down 11.8 per cent to 1.35 trillion yuan.

In the first two months of this year, the trade surplus narrowed by 15.9 per cent to 615.9 billion yuan. China's foreign trade continued to be declined as the economy last year slipped to 6.9 per cent, the lowest in 26 years. China now fixed this year GDP target between 6.5 per cent to 7 per cent.