China's exports plummeted 25.7 percent year-on-year in February, the worst decline in more than a decade, as global demand deteriorated amid the deepening recession, the General Administration of Customs said recently.
Exports contracted for the fourth month in a row amounted to US$64.90 billion, while imports slumped 24.1 percent to US$60.05 billion. The surplus narrowed to US$4.84 billion, less than one-seventh of the figure for January.
Such a drastic fall in exports is rare, showing the severity of the impact of the global downturn, said Zhuang Jian, Senior Economist with the Asian Development Bank.
He said that as the global downturn had not bottomed out, external demand would continue to weaken throughout the year.
Tracey Jia