Growth of trade protectionism and sluggish foreign demand hamper Chinese export growth – ministry of commerce of China

Almaty. February 16. Silkroadnews – Despite the January improvement China’s foreign trade is still under the downward trend influence, deputy director of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce Wang Dongtang said.

“Uncertain and unstable factors are increasing. Difficulties facing China’s foreign trade are not short-term”, Chinese media quote W. Dongtang saying.

According to him, rise of trade protectionism, sluggish foreign demand and increased domestic production costs are potential factors hindering further growth of Chinese exports.

Despite this, he said, the fundamentals of the country’s foreign trade have not changed and the country still retains the advantages in this regard.

At the beginning of the year China’s foreign trade got recovered against the background of a significant growth in both exports and imports.

According to customs data, in January 2017 exports grew 15.9% versus a 0.6% increase in December 2016. Import on results of January increased by 25.2%, while December growth made 10.8%.