Canton Fair spring session ends with 9pc rise in orders over October
China's trade performance makes slight gains amid signs that global economy is on the mend with more deals signed than at October session
Despite a weak export market, China's trade performance appeared to stabilise during the spring session of the Canton Fair, which finished yesterday.
Speaking at the closing press conference, Liu Jianjun, the fair's spokesman and deputy director general of the China Foreign Trade Centre, said the 113th session of the fair, officially known as the China Import and Export Fair, attracted nearly 203,000 visitors from 211 countries and jurisdictions.
"This represents a 7 per cent rise from the autumn fair in October but a decrease of 3.8 per cent compared with the same session last year," Liu said. "Total deals amounted to US$35.54 billion, representing an increase of 8.8 per cent from last October's session and a slight decrease of 1.4 per cent from the last spring fair."
Deals at the October fair were worth US$32.7 billion, the lowest total since 2010.
While the improvement indicated a strengthening global economy, the foundations of the rally remained rocky, Liu said.
"The US economy is recovering, and we are seeing the European debt crisis come under control," he said. "Together with Japan's economic stimulus measures and our own policies to strengthen trade last year, we have seen a slight improvement.