China’s export growth in April fell to single digits due to shocks such as the Shanghai lockdown.
According to the General Administration of Customs of China on the 9th, China’s exports in April amounted to 273.6 billion dollars, up 3.9% from the same month last year.
This increase is more than 10 percentage points lower than the 14.7% in the previous month.
This year, China’s monthly export growth rate has been on the decline since recording 16.3% in January and February, which is only announced once due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
China’s imports in April were $222.5 billion, the same level as in April last year.
China’s monthly import growth rate was -0.1% in March, recording negative for the first time since August 2020, when the aftermath of the Wuhan outbreak continued, but import growth continued to stagnate in April.
As a result, China’s trade surplus in April reached $51.1 billion.
It is analyzed that the sluggishness of China’s imports and exports in April was largely due to the spread of Corona 19, such as the lockdown in Shanghai, which has the world’s largest container port.
“The worsening COVID-19 situation has hampered China’s exports and imports in April, as it has reduced demand and disrupted production and logistics,” Bloomberg News reported.
The complete blockade of Shanghai, the ‘economic capital’, which started on March 28, has begun to be reflected in China’s April economic report card in earnest.
The manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for April, announced recently, was 47.7, the lowest since February 2020, when the Wuhan outbreak began in earnest.
The service sector was hit even more by the sharp cooling of consumption. The service sector Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by financial information providers, fell to 36.2 in April from 42 the previous month, the lowest since February 2020.
Indicators such as industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment, and unemployment rate for April to be released will also confirm the impact of the lockdown in Shanghai, which has been in effect for more than a month.
The Shanghai blockade paralyzes the economy of the Changjiang Delta region, a metropolitan economic bloc, including Shanghai, and is taking a blow that is incomparable to that of other cities that China has implemented since the start of the 2020 pandemic.
[사진 출처 : 연합뉴스]
