BEIJING, China: Amid a slowing global economy that is pressuring Chinese policymakers to launch new stimulus measures, in June China’s exports fell at their fastest rate in three years at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After picking up in the first quarter of this year, China’s post-COVID-19 recovery has slowed, forcing analysts to downgrade their economic projections for the rest of the year.

Data from China’s Customs Bureau released this week showed that following a drop of 7.5 percent in May, exports declined 12.4 percent year-on-year in June, which was worse than expected.

Imports from the world’s second largest economy contracted 6.8 percent, steeper than an expected 4.0 percent fall and the previous month’s 4.5 percent decline.

“The global downturn in goods demand will continue to weigh on exports. But the good news is that the worst of the decline in foreign demand is probably already behind us,” said Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, as quoted by Reuters.

Lv Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs, said the poor export performance was due to “a weak global economic recovery, slowing global trade and investment, and rising unilateralism, protectionism and geopolitics,” according to Reuters.

Among China’s main trading partners, exports to the US, the leading destination for Chinese exports, declined the most over the first half of 2023.

A rapid economic recovery after COVID-19-related lockdowns, which hit the economy in 2022, has now become unlikely as exports account for some 20 percent of the Chinese economy and the struggling property sector for about one-third.

After missing last year’s economic growth target by a wide margin,
the Chinese government has set a modest GDP growth target of around 5 percent for 2023.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who entered office in March, pledged to launch measures that will boost demand and invigorate markets, though few concrete
steps have been announced and investors are growing impatient.