Coronavirus: Chinese foreign trade struggling to recover

Text by: Olivier Rogez Follow

The workshop of the world is still idling. China released its foreign trade figures on Sunday June 7 and they are bad. Exports fell 3.3% in May, and imports were down 16.7% in the same month.

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70 billion surgical masks is what China exported to the rest of the world between March and May. A figure that makes you dizzy and that shows that only exports of medical products escape the gloom. In general, global demand is weak due to the containment measures put in place to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe and America.

► To listen: The economy today - Why the Chinese recovery is still fragile

As the world's leading manufacturer of medical products, China is experiencing a boom in this sector. But this performance is the tree that hides the forest. Because for the rest, the Chinese exporting machine - which supports 180 million workers - is indeed seized. In the past five months, only April saw a slight increase in exports.

Fifth consecutive month of decline

On the import side, it's even worse. In May, they fell by almost 17%. This is the fifth consecutive month of decline. The world workshop suffered the full force of European, American and Asian confinements. The upturn will not occur before the second half, predict Chinese manufacturers who have seen their profits fall by 30% this year.

Despite everything, foreign trade remains largely in surplus, almost 63 billion dollars in May. However, the sluggishness of foreign trade will leave its mark on balance sheet times, and for the first time in decades the authorities have given up setting a quantified target for national growth for this year.

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