China imports and exports slow down to stoke fears for recovery

China’s imports of iron ore, crude oil, coal and copper fell more than expected in October, while exports slowed too.

This augmented economists’ fears that the mooted recovery in the world’s biggest trading nation was a misnomer.

Official figures showed Chinese exports slipped 7.3% last month compared with the same time a year earlier.

After rising for the first time in nearly two years in August, imports shrank 1.4% in October, a second consecutive month of declines.

China’s economy, the second-largest globally after the US, is deemed to be weaning itself off the effect of a property boom which saw soaring demand for building materials from cement to steel.

“The recent trend towards somewhat stronger global demand growth remains fragile and susceptible to setbacks,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia research at Oxford Economics.

Just last month the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund warned a slowdown in China is the greatest threat to the global economy.

Ken Rogoff told the BBC: “I think the economy is slowing down much more than the official figures show