China Trade Deficit Spurs Concern

12-Mar (The Wall Street Journal) — China’s trade sector fell deeply into the red last month after running huge trade surpluses for much of a decade, raising questions about whether the country’s economy is tailing off more rapidly than anticipated.

The weekend report of a $31.5 billion trade deficit in China for February was substantially larger than most analysts expected and followed a string of other disappointing economic data, including weak growth in car sales, industrial production and retail sales, and the continuation of a steep fall in property sales. The only bright economic star was that inflation slackened more rapidly than expected.

…The overall results prompted analysts to predict that China will ease monetary policy over the coming months to bolster growth—but few expect a package remotely on the scale of the stimulus spending and lending that occurred in 2009 and 2010 in response to the global financial crisis.

[source]