Canton Fair points to dim outlook for China exports

Export transactions at the autumn session of the Canton Fair, China's largest trade fair, dropped 6.1 per cent compared with the spring session this year to US$29.16 billion, the second-lowest transaction value since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The number of buyers who visited the trade fair was also down 1.07 per cent to 186,104.

The trade fair, held twice a year in eastern Guangzhou, has long been seen as a gauge of China's export performance in the next six to nine months.

The value of export transactions at the autumn session, which closed yesterday, was the lowest in five years. The last time the transaction value fell below US$30 billion was in the spring of 2009, when the trade fair reported a transaction value of US$26.23 billion in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

"There has not been a strong recovery in the traditional [export] markets, while demand from the emerging markets has also been weak," trade fair spokesman Liu Jianjun told a press conference yesterday.

Mainland China's export transactions with major trading partners, including the European Union, the United States, the other BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa - the Middle East and Japan, all dropped at the autumn session, with the declines ranging from 4 per cent to 19 per cent.