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![Surveys across Asia showed industry struggling with slack demand [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/china_trade_data.jpg)
Surveys across Asia showed industry struggling with slack demand [Xinhua]
The monthly foreign trade surplus widened 12.2 per cent year on year to 406.2 billion yuan ($62.38 billion) in January, up from 382 billion yuan a month earlier, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
Total foreign trade value in January edged down 9.8 per cent year on year to 1.88 trillion yuan.
Trade with China’s three biggest trade partners, the European Union, the United States and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), all dropped around 10 per cent.
Exports and imports by state-owned companies were among those badly hit, diving 15.7 and 25.7 per cent year on year respectively, while private firms reported about 1 per cent increase in both exports and imports.
The leading index for China’s exports stood at 31.7 in January, the first time it increased from the previous month since February 2015, signalling less export pressure in the second quarter of 2016, the GAC said.
In dollar-denominated terms, China’s exports fell for the seventh consecutive month, by 11.2 per cent from one year earlier in January, worsening from December’s 1.4 per cent decline. Imports decline also widened to 18.8 per cent.
In 2015, exports fell 1.8 percent year on year to 14.14 trillion yuan, while imports declined 13.2 percent to 10.45 trillion yuan.
Source: Agencies
