China’s Exports, Import Fall Amid COVID-19 Restrictions

China’s export growth and imports weakened in August as high energy prices, inflation and anti-coronavirus restrictions weighed on global and Chinese consumer demand.

Customs data showed on Wednesday that exports rose 7 per cent over a year ago to $314.9bn, barely one-third of July’s 18 per cent expansion.

Imports contracted by 0.2 per cent to $235.5bn, compared with the previous month’s already weak 2.3 per cent growth.

Demand for Chinese exports softened as economic activity in Western markets slowed and the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia raised interest rates to cool surging inflation.

Repeated closures of cities to fight Coronavirus outbreaks have also weighed on consumer spending.

Growth in the country's economy fell to 2.5 per cent in the first half of 2022, less than half the ruling Communist Party’s 5.5 per cent annual target, after Shanghai and other industrial centres were shut down to fight virus outbreaks.

Factories have reopened since, but temporary closures in areas including the southern business centre of Shenzhen and a dry summer that left reservoirs in China’s southwest unable to generate hydropower have weighed on activity.