China’s exports shrank sharply in December as global demand cooled, contracting 9.9 percent, while imports fell by a more modest 7.5 percent.
Economists anticipate that domestic demand will slowly recover in the coming months, “but for the first quarter, we will still see a bumpy transitional period where we actually might see contraction instead of growth,” Jing Liu, chief economist for Greater China at HSBC, told Reuters in a call following the release of the 2022 data on Tuesday.
Officials also addressed the country’s grain supply, commenting that the NDRC could ensure the safe supply of grain despite the challenges the market is facing.