Chinese exports fall 6.9% in October

Exports from the second largest economy in the world dropped for the fourth consecutive month, while Chinese imports continued to tumble, dropping nearly 19 percent compared to October 2014.    Exports from China fell for a fourth consecutive month in October 2015 compared with October 2015, while the country’s import dropped for a twelfth straight month year-over-year, matching a record run of decreases.
   Overall value of international shipments from the second largest economy in the world dipped 3.6 percent in October in yuan terms following a 1.1 percent decline in September. In U.S. dollar terms, exports fell 6.9 percent compared with October 2014.
   Shipments to the United States are down 0.9 percent for the year in dollar terms, while exports to the European Union and Japan in 2015 have fallen 2.9 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.
   Imports to China continued to plummet in October, falling 16 percent in yuan terms after a 17.7 percent year-over-year decrease the previous month. Chinese imports dropped 18.8 percent in U.S. dollar terms.
   A prolonged economic slow-down in China has lowered domestic demand for foreign goods and services and lower commodity prices have made those products cheaper to import. And international trade analysts don’t expect this trend to reverse itself any time soon, especially with the U.S. Federal reserve mulling a rate hike in the near future.
   “We see that the trade will unlikely turn around the momentum in the near term, and the RMB exchange rate will be under downward pressure especially as Fed signals to hike soon,” Commerzbank China economist Zhou Hao told Reuters news service.
   The country’s trade surplus, the total value of exported goods and services minus the total value of imports, stood at 393.2 billion yuan (U.S. $61.8 billion) for the month.
   In U.S. dollar terms, combined exports and imports are down 8.5 percent through the first 10 months of 2015, well below China’s official full-year official growth target of 6 percent.