China’s trade surplus and exports fell off sharply last month, the government said yesterday, as the world’s third-largest economy took a harder-than-expected hit from the global downturn.
The figures took markets in the region by surprise and analysts said the gloomy data would deepen concern about how China weathers the crisis despite a massive stimulus package aimed at bolstering the flagging economy.
The customs bureau said exports were down 25.7 percent last month year-on-year, while the trade surplus stood at US$4.84 billion — a dramatic reduction from more than US$39 billion the previous month.
“This is clearly worse than expected,” said Robert Subbaraman, an analyst with Nomura International in Hong Kong, who indicated the markets had been expecting a 1 percent rise in exports despite the worldwide slowdown.
“Clearly China is feeling the pinch like other Asian countries from the global downturn now,” he said.
The trade surplus was down by nearly half compared with last year’s February figure of US$8.56 billion. In the first two months of the year, Chinese exports declined 21.1 percent from the same period last year.
The customs bureau said imports dropped 24.1 percent last month.
China’s economy is heavily dependent on exports and the slowdown has led to the closure of thousands of factories in the country’s southern and eastern manufacturing heartlands.
Twenty million migrant workers from China’s poor rural areas have already lost their jobs and growth in the last quarter of last year was below the level the government says is need to prevent mass unrest.
Chinese authorities late last year unveiled an unprecedented 4 trillion yuan (US$580 billion) stimulus package, far bigger than anything tried by China before, but Subbaraman said the latest figures suggested that was not enough.
“There is going to be even more pressure now for the authorities to do more fiscal stimulus,” he said.
There appeared to be a bit of good news as the national statistics bureau said fixed asset investment in urban areas — a rough gauge of manufacturing health — soared 26.5 percent in the first two months of this year.
That rise suggested that the benefits of the stimulus package were starting to make themselves felt.
Fixed asset investment is among the most closely watched of numbers in China as it gives an idea of the state of fiscal spending, which has attained extra importance during the economic slowdown.
“Since the beginning of the year, the government has repeatedly stressed it wants a good start and the investments should be in place at an early date — this is the main driver,” said Lu Zhengwei with Industrial Bank in Shanghai.
But good news has been hard to come by for the Chinese economy. The government said on Tuesday that consumer prices had dropped for the first time in more than six years.
The fall underscored worries over long-term deflation, which could lead consumers to put off major purchases — something that would make it even more difficult for China to meet its target of 8 percent growth this year.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary