China’s imports and exports last month plunged to levels not seen since early 2020, official figures showed yesterday, as stringent COVID-19 restrictions hit the economy hard.
The last major economy still wedded to a zero-tolerance virus policy, China’s snap lockdowns, travel curbs and mass testing have stifled business activity, disrupted supply chains and dampened consumption.
Imports fell 10.6 percent year-on-year, the biggest drop since May 2020, Chinese General Administration of Customs data showed.
Photo: AP
Exports fell 8.7 percent — the steepest decline since February 2020, when the country was mired in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Weakening domestic and foreign demand, COVID disruptions and a rising comparison base lead to a perfect, but well-expected storm to China’s exports and imports,” Jones Lang Lasalle Inc chief economist Bruce Pang (龐溟) told Bloomberg News.
The figures are the latest in a string of gloomy economic indicators as the world’s second-largest economy charts a faltering path out of its “zero COVID-19” policy.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has indicated a shift in its COVID-19 messaging since the country’s largest protests in decades last week took aim at lockdowns and other virus curbs.
Local authorities have begun easing testing requirements and other restrictions, but travel between provinces remains complicated and health measures continue to vary from place to place.
“The zero COVID policy has been loosened, but mobility has not recovered much on the national level,” Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd (保銀私募基金管理) chief economist Zhang Zhiwei (張智威) said.
“I expect exports will stay weak in the next few months as China goes through a bumpy reopening process,” he said. “As global demand weakens in 2023, China will have to rely more on domestic demand.”
As Beijing shifts gears toward bolstering economic recovery, senior Chinese officials are debating an economic growth target for next year of about 5 percent, people familiar with the discussion said.
Some officials say that setting a goal at a relatively high level would help local governments shift the focus of their work away from COVID-19 controls to boosting the economy, the people said.
Other officials are concerned a target of about 5 percent could be too ambitious, they said.
The CCP’s Politburo, its top decisionmaking body, yesterday said in a statement that it would next year seek a turnaround in the economy and significantly boost market confidence.
“Growth is clearly more important for the leaders now,” Zhang said.
A growth target of about 5 percent “would be a signal to send this message to the public and local officials,” he added.
The GDP target would likely be discussed at the CCP’s Central Economic Work Conference, which usually takes place within a week of the Politburo’s meeting this month.
The GDP goal itself is only disclosed at the annual legislative meeting in March.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS