Export figures improved in September, China's General Administration of Customs announced Wednesday, falling 15.2 percent year-on-year compared to 23.4 percent in August. This better-than-expected data lifted Shanghai stocks.
Japan’s export decline worsened in July as demand from all the nation’s major markets – especially in the US and China – deteriorated, in a sign that the impact of stimulus measures may be waning.
Chinese exports in the month of July have dropped 23% from a year earlier as the government steps up public spending to meet an 8% annual growth target deemed necessary to keep the job market afloat and avoid social unrest.
Japan on Tuesday instituted a "total ban on exports" to North Korea in retaliation for Pyongyang's continued nuclear testing. This comes amid worries of a third nuclear test to come, after the UN recently voted in tougher sanctions on the regime.
China's exports and imports fell more sharply than expected in May from their 2008 levels, marking the seventh consecutive month month of decline, the country's customs authorities said on Thursday.
China's effort to boost its domestic demand has shown signs of success. Investments by domestic companies in the first four months of 2009 were up 34.6%. Yet shipments continued to decline for the sixth month running, falling 22.6 % in April.
Official figures show that Japanese exports suffered another record drop, falling nearly 50% in February from a year earlier, as world demand for cars and high-tech goods falls amid the global slowdown.
China succumbed to the global economic downturn as Chinese exports slid 25.7 percent from a year earlier. This drop is the steepest since bankers started keeping records in 1993.
The latest reports on the health of France’s wine industry have been dire, raising fears of the worst. But in spite of the warnings, the sector looks poised to make a recovery.
Millions of migrant workers without a job, thousands of factories shutting their doors and export markets shrinking: a nightmare in the making for China's Communist leadership.
