China imports fall as COVID outbreaks, curbs hit demand

China imports fall as COVID outbreaks, curbs hit demand

BEIJING: China’s imports shrank on-year in March for the first time in nearly two years, official data showed, hit by coronavirus lockdowns and weakening consumer demand. The world’s second-largest economy has stuck to a strict zero-COVID strategy as it tries to contain outbreaks fuelled by the Omicron variant in recent months. The economic costs, however, have mounted—the waves of infections and resulting lockdowns have kept consumers at home, halted business operations and snarled supply chains.

Imports dropped 0.1 percent from a year ago, according to data from China’s Customs Administration—the first such decline since August 2020, in the early phase of the pandemic. The figure was much lower than the forecast from a Bloomberg poll of economists, and a far cry from the 15.5 percent growth for the first two months this year. “Some unexpected factors in the international and domestic environment have gone beyond our anticipation,” Customs Administration spokesman Li Kuiwen told reporters.

“Achieving the goal of stabilizing foreign trade will require greater effort.” China’s export growth slowed as well in March to 14.7 percent, down from 16.3 percent in the first two months. While Li did not specify external factors, the drop in exports came during a period where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine