BANGKOK, Thailand –
China’s exports rose seven per cent in July from a year earlier, below economists’ forecasts for growth closer to 10 per cent as trade tensions and weakening growth in the United States and other major markets weighed on demand.
Chinese leaders have ramped up investment in manufacturing to rev up an economy that stalled during the pandemic and is still growing more slowly than hoped. But moves to tame inflation by raising interest rates have bit into consumer demand in affluent Western countries.
Imports climbed 7.2 per cent to US$215.9 billion, picking up momentum on stronger trade with other Asian countries that now supply many industrial components, materials and consumer products to China. Exports to the United States rose 2.4 per cent year-on-year while shipments to Southeast Asian countries, now Beijing’s biggest trading partner overall, jumped 11 per cent.
Exports totaled US$300.6 billion in July, expanding at the slowest pace …