Well-known Chinese news website Sina recently reported on the newly released import/export numbers for March. While economists were expecting a four percent increase, this year’s export numbers suffered a decline of 6.6 percent when compared to last March. Imports suffered an 11.3 percent decline instead of the expected 2.4 percent increase. The first quarter total import/export volume reached US$966 billion, which represents a one percent decline compared to the first quarter of 2013. The first quarter trade surplus was US$16.7 billion, which showed a decrease of 59.7 percent from the first quarter of last year. HSBC economist Ma Xiaoping commented in a Wall Street Journal interview that both China’s domestic and international demands remain weak. China’s key trade partners are recovering slowly. Noticeably, there was a sharp decline of 33.3 percent for the trade volume between the Mainland and Hong Kong, which holds a 7.8 percent share of the entire volume of imports and exports.
Source: Sina.com, April 10, 2014
http://finance.sina.com.cn/money/future/fmnews/20140410/100118757147.shtml