China's trade growth slows down on sluggish US, EU economy

According to the data released by General Administration of Customs (GAC) today, imports too, increased by 22.7 percent from a year earlier to USD 116.79 billion but the pace of growth on month-on-month basis was less than 34.1 per cent in June.

The decrease in growth rate of imports is considered as an indication of a slow down in China’s rapid economic expansion, which some economists fear could hinder global economic growth.

"China's exports growth would continue to slow in line with an expected slowdown in economic growth in the United States and European Union from the third quarter", said Wang Tao, economist with the UBS Securities.

Wang said growth in exports would continue to outpace that of imports for the rest of the year and she expected the annual trade surplus to hit 185 billion US dollars this year.
On a monthly basis, exports in July were up 5.9 percent from June, but July's imports edged down 0.4 percent from the previous month.

The country's foreign trade totalled USD 262.31 billion last month, up by 30.8 percent from a year earlier.

The trade surplus for the first seven months totalled to USD 83.93 billion down 21.2 percent over the same period last year, which once again could bring pressure on China to revalue its currency Yuan, at present, trading around 6.76 against the US dollar.