2-3 minutes
Containers sit at the Yangshan Port in Shanghai, China, Aug. 6, 2019.
Aly Song | Reuters
China’s
exports contracted sharply in the first two months of the year, as the
fast spreading coronavirus outbreak caused massive disruptions to
business operations, global supply chains and economic activity.
Imports also fell but were better than analyst expectations.
The
gloomy trade report is likely to reinforce fears that China’s economic
growth halved in the first quarter to the weakest since 1990 as the
epidemic and strict government containment measures crippled factory
production and led to a sharp slump in demand.
Overseas shipments
fell 17.2% in January-February from the same period a year earlier,
customs data showed on Saturday, marking the steepest fall since
February 2019.
That compared with a 14% drop tipped by a Reuters poll of analysts and a 7.9% gain in December.
Imports
sank 4% from a year earlier, better than market expectations of a 15%
drop. They had jumped 16.5% in December, buoyed in part by a preliminary
China-U.S. trade deal.
China ran a trade deficit of $7.09 billion for the period, reversing an expected $24.6 billion surplus in the poll.
Factory
activity contracted at the fastest pace ever in February, even worse
than during the global financial crisis, an official manufacturing gauge
showed last weekend, with a sharp slump in new orders. A private survey
highlighted similarly dire conditions.
Though the number of new
virus cases in China is falling, and local governments are slowly
relaxing emergency measures, analysts say many businesses are taking
longer to reopen than expected, and may not return to normal production
till April.
Those delays threaten an even longer and costlier
spillover into the economies of China’s major trading partners, many of
which rely heavily on Chinese-made parts and components.
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