- Huang Songping, General Administration of Customs spokesman
China's overseas shipments unexpectedly rose in June, while imports declined, reinforcing the view Beijing may further loosen monetary policy to support the world's second biggest economy after a recent stock market rout. China's June exports overshot analysts' expectations, surging 2.8% from the previous year, while imports plunged by 6.1% following the 17.6 dive in the preceding month. This resulted in the trade surplus for the month of $46.54 billion, compared with the $55.7 billion forecast and May's reading of $59.5 billion. China's customs department referred weak exports in the first half of the year to soft external demand, increasing labour costs and Yuan appreciation. Meanwhile, it said overcapacity in the domestic economy is sapping import demand. Nevertheless, it predicts the country's trade performance will improve in the second half of the year.
China's trade numbers come days before the release of its highly anticipated gross domestic product data on Wednesday, which is expected to show the Chinese economy slowed further in the second quarter. Economists forecast growth slid below 7% in the April-June period, following 7% expansion in the first quarter of 2015, the weakest performance since 2009.
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