China may overtake Germany in exports

China may overtake Germany in exports    A Chinese official said his country has probably overtaken Germany as the world’s largest exporter in 2009, even as exports dropped by about 16.5 percent from a year earlier to $1.19 trillion.
   December is expected to witness the first year-on-year growth of as much as 10 percent since last November.
   China Daily quoted Zhong Shan, vice-minister of commerce, as saying
“2009 was the hardest in the Chinese trade history,” but that the county’s share of world exports is expected to rise to 9 percent from
8.86 percent in 2008.
   The newspaper also quoted China's Minister of Commerce Chen Deming predicting the country's exports won’t gain the strong growth witnessed in the years before 2008 until 2011.
   While the U.S. and European economies have shown some signs of growth, Chen said it's not yet enough to rejuvenate China’s export market and that the country is focusing on stimulating domestic demand.