- Ma Xiaoping, HSBC economist
China's imports dropped, while exports remained feeble in September due to weak global demand, suggesting the world's second biggest economy continued to falter into the end of the year. While exports declined less than economists had predicted, the data indicated that China's third-quarter growth numbers due for release next week would likely come against Beijing's target of about 7% for the whole year. According to the General Administration of Customs, Chinese exports dropped 3.7% in September from a year earlier in US Dollar terms after a 5.5% plunge in August. At the same time, imports in September plummeted 20.4% from a year earlier, compared with a 13.8% slump in the preceding month. As a result, the country's trade surplus rose to $60.3 billion in September from $60.2 billion a month earlier.
China's September exports continued to falter due to weak global demand. The International Monetary Fund predicts the world's economy to expand 3.1% this year, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis. That is a downgrade from the IMF's 3.3% growth forecast in July. China is likely to miss its 2015 foreign trade target of 6% annual growth, down from the 7.5% growth goals it set in 2014 and 8% in 2013, both of which it failed to reach, economists said.
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