China’s double whammy: Exports fell for the first time in 7 years, as domestic demand dips

China’s double whammy: Exports fell for the first time in 7 years, as domestic demand dips

Hong Kong CNN —

China’s economy had a bad 2023 and the outlook isn’t much better.

Exports for the year as a whole fell for the first time since 2016 as global demand for Chinese-made goods (other than cars) slowed, according to customs data released on Friday. Officials said the slump will be difficult to shake off in 2024.

That wasn’t the only gloomy data China released on Friday. The world’s second largest economy is struggling to stem deflationary pressures. Consumer price inflation in 2023 was the weakest it has been in 14 years.

The consumer price index for December improved slightly from November, but was down 0.3 percent on the same month in 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. For 2023 as a whole, prices were up by just 0.2 percent over 2022, the weakest reading since 2009, when CPI fell by 0.7 percent as a global recession hit.

China is suffering a double-whammy of weak demand at home and abroad.

Exports measured in US dollar terms stood at $3.38 trillion in 2023, down by 4.6 percent compared to the year before. In 2022, Chinese exports increased by 7 percent from the year earlier. The last time China registered a decline in overseas