China Nov. exports down 2.2% in first fall since June 2001

China's exports totaled 115 billion U.S. dollars last month, down 2.2 percent year-on-year in the first monthly decline since June 2001, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Wednesday.

The previous decline, a much smaller 0.6 percent, reflected slumping U.S. demand after the tech bubble burst.

November's exports also fell 10.4 percent month-on-month. In October, exports were up 19.2 percent year-on-year.

Sharp declines were recorded on the import front last month. Imports were worth 75 billion U.S. dollars, down 17.9 percent year-on-year and down 19.5 percent month-on-month.

It means the financial crisis is not only weakening the economies of the United States and European Union but also weighing on China's economy, said Zhuang Jian, senior economist with the Asian Development Bank's China Resident Mission.

November's total trade volume stood at 189.89 billion U.S. dollars, down 9 percent year-on-year, GAC said.

The monthly trade surplus hit a record high for this year at 40billion U.S. dollars, up 52 percent from last November, when it was 26.28 billion U.S. dollars. The trade surplus was 35.24 billion U.S. dollars in October and 29.3 billion U.S. dollars in September.

Zhuang attributed the record-high trade surplus to a drop in exports and an even sharper decrease in imports, which widened thetrade gap.

When exports fall due to weak external demand, imports will drop more drastically because most of the country's export industry is processing with supplied or imported materials, he said.

According to Zhuang, the decline in orders at the latest CantonFair, an important barometer of China's trade, was a gloomy portent.

At the most recent Fair, where foreign buyers have traditionally come to order, trade fell about 10 percent year-on-year. Orders from the United States posted the biggest drop -- about one third of last year's volume, to 1.63 billion U.S. dollars.

Zhuang expected the grim situation to persist in December and into the first half of 2009.

From January to November, foreign trade was 2.38 trillion U.S. dollars, jumping 20.9 percent year-on-year. The total comprised 1.32 trillion U.S. dollars in exports, up 19.3 percent, and 1.06 trillion U.S. dollars in imports, an increase of 22.8 percent, GAC figures showed.

That created a cumulative trade surplus of 255.95 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months, up 6.9 percent or 16.39 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier, GAC said.

According to GAC, the EU remained China's top trading partner, with bilateral trade totaling 392.94 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months, jumping 22 percent over the same period last year. Trade between China and the United States, the second-biggest trade partner, rose 11.6 percent to 307.82 billion U.S. dollars.

Japan remained China's No. 3 trade partner with bilateral trade totaling 246.23 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.2 percent.

Source:Xinhua