BEIJING : China's export and imports are expected to have continued to struggle over December, due to the spread of COVID-19 in the country disrupting production lines and waning demand both at home and abroad, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.
Imports are expected to have fallen at a slower pace at 9.8 per cent over December, after a fall of 10.6 per cent in November.With many of China's trade partners on the verge of going into recession, external demand is cooling, only adding to the pressure Chinese policymakers are under to stem the economic fallout of the spread of COVID.
"The trade outlook could be a top threat to China's growth ambition next year," said analysts at Citi in a note."We are concerned about the external demand amid global recession risks... our base case is a modest decline of exports in 2023E," they added. The"closed loop" system that many plants had come to rely on over the past three years started to fall apart as infection numbers crept up within workforces.
2023年面臨大蕭條了