China’s export growth fell in September in surprise slide

12 Oct 2013

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China's export growth fizzled last month in an unexpected fall with sales to Southeast Asia falling, data showed, after a recent run of indicators that had showed an economy gaining strength.

China's exports were down 0.3 per cent in September from a year earlier, the Customs Administration said on Saturday, which ran counter to an expected increase of 6 per cent, and marked the worst performance in three months.

Imports fared better, increasing 7.4 per cent in September from a year ago, bettering the forecasts for a 7 per cent increase, shrinking China's monthly trade surplus to $15.2 billion.

According to analysts, weak exports underscored worries about slowing global demand, which might crumble further in coming months - especially in emerging markets - when tighter US monetary policy pushed investors away from developing economies.

According to data, Chinese exports to Southeast Asia, China's fastest-growing export market in the past year, fell to a 17-month low in September.

Capital outflows from the region on bets that the US central bank would cut its bond purchases had hit demand, Reuters reported Louis Kuijs, an economist at RBS in Hong Kong as saying.

He added, looking ahead, export data might be quite weak in the coming months, adding that several emerging markets had seen financial turmoil.

Meanwhile, China's daily oil imports increased to a record high last month, with the world's second-largest economy's expansion driving demand for energy, Bloomberg reported.

China's crude imports stood at a net 25.61 million metric tons in September, according to figures on the website of the General Administration of Customs today.

That worked out to an equivalent average 6.26 million barrels a day, 25 per cent up on August and 2 per cent higher than the previous record of 6.13 million barrels a day in July according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A forecast published on 9 August said, the country might see its net crude import increase to 6.45 million barrels a day by October, surging past an estimated 6.23 million of the US. The forecast was published by the Washington-based Energy Information Administration.

A government report due on 18 October might  show that the country's gross domestic product increased 7.8 per cent from a year earlier in the third quarter, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Second quarter growth stood at 7.5 per cent.

Oil imports into China have risen ''as a result of expansion in the economy and its growing demand for resources,'' customs spokesman Zheng Yuesheng said at a briefing in Beijing today. ''It's hard to predict how much oil China will import in the future, which will depend on the macro-economy.''

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