Beijing, Sep 8 (IANS) China’s international trade grew by just 0.1 per cent year-on-year in August, according to official data released on Sunday.
The General Administration of Customs said that in the eighth month of 2019, China’s foreign trade stood at 2.72 trillion yuan ($381.92 billion), reports Efe news.
The weak growth represents a slowdown of 12.6 percentage points from that experienced by Chinese trade in the same month last year.
Chinese exports increased by 2.6 per cent, while imports fell by the same percentage.
The trade surplus was 239.6 billion yuan, 33.3 per cent higher than recorded in August 2018.
Trade with the US with which China has been in a trade war since March 2018, declined by 9.2 per cent.
Exports to the US fell by 12.9 per cent and the purchase of American products declined by nearly 20 per cent year-on-year.
In an accumulation of the first eight months of the year, China’s foreign trade reached 20.13 trillion yuan, with a higher increase in exports (6.1 per cent) than imports (0.8 per cent).
The trade surplus as of August stood at 1.77 trillion yuan, or 42.5 per cent more than in the same period last year.
–IANS
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