China Ministry of Commerce: "March Exports Improved but Impacted by COVID-19"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] China's Ministry of Commerce has forecasted that foreign trade, which was hit by COVID-19, is expected to improve significantly in March. However, concerns remain as uncertainties persist due to the ongoing global spread of COVID-19.

According to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency on the 10th, Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, stated at a briefing the previous day that China's exports and imports, which were impacted by COVID-19, showed signs of improvement in March.

Spokesperson Gao said, "When compiling information from various regions and industries across China, exports and imports in March showed a clear improvement," adding, "About 76% of places have a resumption rate of over 70% in the national trade industry." He also noted, "The manufacturing PMI export order index and import index in March improved by 17.7 points and 16.5 points respectively compared to February."

However, he explained, "At the same time, the impact of the global spread of COVID-19 on the world economy and international trade is gradually becoming apparent," adding, "Some traders are experiencing disruptions in new orders due to cancellations or delays. The textile and apparel sectors are particularly hard hit. We will closely monitor and assess how the global spread of COVID-19 will affect China's trade."

Gao's remarks came as the General Administration of Customs of China is scheduled to release March trade statistics on the 14th. Bloomberg predicted that China's March exports (in dollar terms) will decrease by 13.9% compared to the previous year, showing a slight improvement from the 17.2% decline in January and February. The Customs Administration previously reported that the total export value for January and February fell 17.2% year-on-year, while imports decreased by 4%. The trade balance recorded a deficit of $7.09 billion (approximately 8.4 trillion KRW).

Meanwhile, Gao stated that from March 3 to April 3, China exported COVID-19 prevention and medical supplies worth 10.2 billion yuan. Regarding the resumption of operations by foreign-invested enterprises in China, he noted a gradually improving atmosphere, explaining that as of April 7, among 8,776 foreign-invested enterprises nationwide, about 71.9% had resumed operations with a resumption rate exceeding 70%. He particularly highlighted that the manufacturing sector's resumption accelerated, with 76.8% of enterprises exceeding a 70% resumption rate.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.