WEB DESK
China’s foreign trade fell again in March even as businesses returned to work after the coronavirus outbreak, with the global pandemic weighing on the manufacturing powerhouse’s outlook. Exports fell 6.6 percent in March from a year earlier and imports dropped 0.9 percent, according to Customs data released on Tuesday.
The contraction was less than a Bloomberg economist forecast that predicted a 10 percent or more decline in both figures, and well below the 17.2 plunge in exports seen in the first two months of the year. However, analysts warned that a broader recovery would be hamstrung for as long as the viral pandemic ravaged China’s trading partners.
China’s trade surplus with the United States, a key point of contention in the bruising trade war between the world’s top two economies narrowed again in March by 25.3 percent on-year to 15.3 billion USD.