China’s export growth slowed further in September as weakening global demand continued to weigh on a key pillar of the world’s second-largest economy.
Exports rose 5.7% from a year earlier in September, weakening after a 7.1% increase in August, said the General Administration of Customs on Monday. The result, however, was better than the 4% growth tipped by a Wall Street Journal poll of economists.
China’s imports in September only increased 0.3% from a year earlier, on par with the growth in August but below the 1.0% growth forecast by the survey of economists.
China recorded a $84.74 billion trade surplus in September.
In the first nine months, China’s exports grew 12.5% from the same period a year earlier, compared with a 13.5% increase in the January-August period, said the customs bureau.
Imports increased 4.1% on year in the January-September period, compared with the 4.6% growth in the January-August period and the 1.0% growth tipped by The Wall Street Journal survey.
That put China’s trade surplus in the first nine months of the year at $645.2 billion.
