Cargo ships dock at the container terminal at the port of Lianyungang, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Dec. 7, 2022.
PHOTO | Future publications | fake images
BEIJING — China’s exports and imports fell less than expected in December, the customs administration said on Friday.
The slighter drop meant that trade was still growing throughout 2022.
China’s exports fell 9.9% in December from a year earlier in US dollar terms, slightly better than the 10% drop forecast by a Reuters poll.
China’s imports fell 7.5% year-on-year in December in US dollar terms, also better than the 9.8% drop forecast by Reuters.
Strong exports have boosted China’s economy in the past two years. But economists anticipate a slowdown in demand from the US and Europe.
China’s exports already began to fall year-over-year in October, for the first time since May 2020, according to Wind Information.
For all of 2022, China’s exports grew 7.7% and imports 1.1%, the customs agency said.
Cross-border e-commerce between China and other countries grew 9.8 percent in 2022 from a year earlier to 2.11 trillion yuan ($301.42 billion), according to official figures. These direct exports to the consumer increased by 11.7% year-on-year.
However, that marked a slowdown from 2021, when China’s cross-border e-commerce increased 15% to 1.98 trillion yuan ($311.5 billion) and exports rose 24.5%.
China’s imports from the EU and the US fell in 2022, while those from ASEAN grew slightly.