China’s exports fell 6.4% year-on-year in April, falling short of the market’s expectation of a 2.4% rise, and following a 15% contraction in March.
Imports dropped 16.2% year-on-year for the month, also worse than the 12% expected drop, and after falling 12.7% in March.
As a result, trade surplus widened to RMB210.2 billion (US$34 billion), from RMB18.2 billion (USD3.1 billion) in March.
"We continue to see strong headwinds in China’s trade sector in the foreseeable future," writes a report by ANZ. "We expect that authorities will reduce tax burdens by rolling out more export tax rebates and will cut interest rate further to lower firms’ funding costs."