China’s exports grew at the weakest pace in almost two years (+ 3.9%) in April, as the Shanghai lockdown severely punished economic activity, customs said on Monday.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect a more obvious decline (+ 2.7%) after a 14.7% increase in March for the year.
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This is the worst performance of Chinese exports since June 2020 (+ 0.5%).
Last month, tens of thousands of Chinese were imprisoned, especially in the northeast of the country, the cradle of the automotive industry, especially Shanghai, which has a population of 25 million.
Many multinational companies are established there and the Chinese economic capital also has the largest port in China.
The metropolitan continuous shutdown greatly weighs on the functioning of the country and global supply chains, while the shadow of control hangs over the capital, Beijing.
In another direction, imports from China were zero in one year. However, this rate is better than March (-0.1%) and better than analysts’ expectations (-3%).
One year ago, after a virtual freeze of activity during the first wave of epidemics in early 2020, imports from China rose 43.1% on the back of the economic downturn.
As for Asia’s largest trade surplus, it reached $ 51.1 billion (.6 48.6 billion) in April.
China’s surplus in March was $ 47.38 billion.