China exports fall, trade surplus drops

China's trade surplus shrank in February as sales of goods to the United States fell, the government said Monday, but analysts said exports should bounce back now that winter storms that disrupted the economy have passed.
The 63 percent drop in the trade gap from a year earlier was due partly to a longterm slowdown in export demand, but February was an unusually weak month, analysts said.
"We expect the export figures to rebound in March, but continue to anticipate a more moderate slowdown in export growth over the course of the year," Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan's chairwoman of China equities, said in a report to clients.
February's trade surplus was $8.6 billion, down from $23.7 billion in the year-earlier period, according to China's customs bureau.
The data reflected slowing growth in exports to the United States and Europe while China's still-robust economy is driving demand for imported energy, consumer goods and industrial equipment.
China's imports in February surged 35 percent to $78.8 billion from the year-earlier period, according to the customs agency. The rate of export growth, meanwhile, plunged to 6.5 percent from January's 26 percent.
Exports to the United States fell 5 percent in February to $16.4 billion, while imports of American goods jumped 33 percent to $6.1 billion.
Beijing is under pressure from the United States and the European Union to ease trade barriers and currency controls that they say are adding to its swollen trade surplus. Some American lawmakers are calling for punitive action if Beijing fails to act.