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Caution about over-optimism at export fair

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SENIOR Chinese trade officials are warning against over-optimism about business volume at the China Export Commodities Fair which opens today.

Mr Lu Ruguang, deputy secretary-general of the fair, said the amount of contracts might be hurt by poor economic conditions in Western countries.

''At present, the market is not very favourable because the economies of Western countries have not shown significant improvement. I believe this will more or less affect their purchasing power,'' he said.

Mr Lu said it was difficult to predict total volume during the 10-day fair because there were some changes in the format.

This year, for example, minerals, large machinery, machine tools and vehicles are not included.

''There are still chances for the total business volume to exceed that of last year, but I would say this would require considerable efforts from the participants,'' he added.

He believed the products most likely to suffer would be raw materials, noting that light industrial products were daily necessities which tended to be less income elastic.

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