China’s exports and imports growth slow
beijing — China’s exports and imports growth slowed in December after surging in the previous month, adding to signs of ebbing economic momentum as the government extends a crackdown on financial risks and factory pollution.
A synchronized uptick in the global economy over the past year has been a boon to China and much of trade-dependent Asia, with Chinese exports in 2017 growing at their quickest pace in four years. The sharp December imports slowdown, however, is raising concerns that the world’s second-biggest economy faces domestic-demand pressure as authorities turn off cheap credit and restrict speculative financing.
“We have since long expected China’s domestic demand and imports to slow in 2018 on gradually tighter monetary and financial policies and slower real estate activity momentum”, said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics in Hong Kong.
In December, exports rose 10.9 per cent from a year earlier, beating analysts’ forecast of a 9.1 per cent increase, but cooling from a robust 12.3 per cent gain in November, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday.
Imports grew at an even slower pace of 4.5 per cent year-on-year last month, the weakest since they rose 3.1 per cent in December 2016, and way below forecasts of 13.0 per cent growth. They had boomed 17.7 per cent in the previous month.
Despite the December slowdown, the overall picture for 2017 underscored strong global appetite for Chinese products ranging from electronics, household appliances and a vast array of consumer goods.—