China’s exports and imports to plummet amid battered global demand: Reuters poll

China’s exports and imports for April are expected to plummet after a tentative recovery in the previous month. TThe decline is forecasted at a record double-digit level as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter global demand and disrupt supply chains, according to a Reuters’ poll on Wednesday.

The gloomy projection solidifies the worries that a decline in global demand will hinder the recovery of the world’s second-largest economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.

China’s April exports are likely to have contracted by 15.7% from a year earlier, according to a median estimate from a survey of 28 economists. This is in contrast to a forecasted 6.6% decline in March. Shipments out of China shrank by 17.2% during January and February, 2020.

Meanwhile, April imports are expected to have contracted by 11.2% from a year earlier. This would be the sharpest drop since July 2016 compared to the 0.9% decline from March.

The trade surplus for April is expected to be at $6.35 billion compared to a forecast of $19.9 billion in the previous month.