Credit: Visual China

BEIJING, July 13 (TMTPost) —— The growth of China's export to major economies other than Russia continued to slow down in June due to a high base last year and the slowed external demand.

Data released by the General Administration of Customs on Thursday showed that in dollar terms, China’s exports fell 12.4% year-on-year in June, or a decline of 4.9 percentage points compared with May, to the lowest since March 2020. China's imports fell 6.8% year-on-year, a drop of 2.3 percentage points from May.

Due to the recent depreciation of the yuan, the decline in exports in yuan terms was smaller than that in USD terms. Exports fell 8.3% year-on-year in June, or a decline of 7.5 percentage points compared with May, to a record low since March 2020. Imports in June fell 2.6% year over year compared with May.  

The import and export performance in June was lower than market expectations. Caixin Media's recent survey of 14 domestic and international institutions showed that economists' forecasts for China's export growth in June year-on-year averaged -10.2%, with a range of -14.4% to -7.0%. Forecasts for import growth year-on-year averaged -3.9%, with a range of -8.4% to -1.0%, and forecasts for trade surplus averaged 73.68 billion U.S. dollars.

China's exports to the major economies except Russia in June declined year-on-year. Among them, the exports to the U.S. dropped by 23.7%, compared with 29.2 percentage points in May. Exports to ASEAN saw a decline for two consecutive months, and the decline rate reached 16.9%, smaller than the overall growth rate, showing that the impact of the slowdown of the European and American economies gradually spread to ASEAN's demand for China's intermediate goods. Exports to Africa dropped year-on-year in June for the first time since May 2022, while they fell by 6.9%, compared with a 26.7 % year-over-year increase in May. The growth rate of exports to Russia dropped by 22.9 percentage points to 120.9%, significantly higher than the overall level. 

China's exports of labor-intensive products in June continued to decrease. Bags exports decreased year-on-year, and the growth rate decreased by 6.2 percentage points to -5.1%. Apparel and shoes descended by 2.0 and 11.5 percentage points to 14.5% and 21.3%. The decline rate of textiles including masks remained unchanged at 14.3%.

The exports of machinery products fell by 9.0% year-on-year. The growth rate of exports of automobiles and chassis exports reduced by 13.5 percentage points. Cell phones, and integrated circuits exports fell by 23.3% year-on-year, respectively. The growth rate of exports of medical instruments and automatic data processing equipment with its parts and components declined by 5.4 and 13.8 percentage points to 8.5% and 24.7%, respectively. Exports of high-tech products continued to be in the downturn trend in May, with a decline rate of 16.8%.

The performance of commodity imports diverged. As the price of crude oil and iron ore reduced while the volume continued to increase, the growth rate of import volume accelerated by 33.1 and 3.4 percentage points year-on-year to 45.3% and 7.4%. Steel fell in volume and price, and the import volume and imports declined by 0.9 and 7.7 percentage points to 22.6% and 25.8%, respectively.