China’s trade with Africa grows 2.2 per cent in 2019 to US$208 billion

Chinese imports fall 3.8 per cent to US$95.5 billion, China’s General Administration of Customs says

Exports rise 7.9 per cent to US$113.2 billion as Beijing seeks new markets to offset impact of trade war with the US

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China-Africa trade grew at a much slower rate in 2019. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:30am, 18 Jan 2020Updated: 3:23pm, 17 Feb 2020

China’s trade with Africa grew at a slower rate last year, as a downturn in the Asian giant’s economy led to a sharp fall in imports of industrial raw materials.

Two-way trade grew by just 2.2 per cent in 2019 to US$208.7 billion, compared with a 20 per cent rise a year earlier, according to official figures from China’s General Administration of Customs.

China’s imports from Africa fell by 3.8 per cent in the period to US$95.5 billion, while exports rose 7.9 per cent to US$113.2 billion as Beijing sought new markets as a way to bypass the punitive trade war tariffs imposed on its goods by the United States.

China’s economic downturn led to a sharp fall in imports of industrial raw materials from Africa. Photo: Xinhua

Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital, a Moscow-based investment bank that specialises in emerging markets, said commodity exporters in Africa did not do well when global manufacturing was weak.

“The US-China trade war, Germany’s car industry weakness and tensions between South Korea and Japan all contributed to this weakness,” he said.

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