During the first quarter, foreign trade dropped 24.9 percent to US$428.7 billion. Exports were down 19.7 percent to US$245.5 billion. Imports slumped 30.9 percent to US$183.2 billion.

Actually used foreign direct investment stood at US$21.8 billion, US$5.6 billion less than the same period of last year.

China's major trading partners are still facing economic difficulties. US retail sales fell 1.1 percent in March, when economists were looking for a 0.3-percent gain. Japanese industrial output fell a seasonally adjusted 9.4 percent in February from the previous month, which marked a fall for the fifth month running, the longest slump since 2001.

Yao Jingyuan, NBS chief economist, said external demand remained "the most volatile factor" in the country's economic development.

Corporate earnings shrank as economic growth slowed. The Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd. (Chalco) reported a 99.9-percent plunge in full-year net profit to 9.2 million yuan in 2008. Yunnan Copper posted a 2008 loss of 2.79 billion yuan because of lower metal prices and the write-down of inventories.

Tax cuts intended to spur the economy and the financial markets reduced government revenues. First-quarter fiscal revenue fell 8.3 percent to 1.46 trillion yuan.

In the first two months, the number of newly employed in urban areas reached 1.62 million, down 210,000 from the same period of 2008. The employment of college graduates in first jobs fell to 20 percent in the first quarter from the historical average of 70 percent.

Record high credit

The country's bank credit rose rapidly in the first quarter. Credit extended by banks hit 4.58 trillion yuan, representing about 90 percent of the annual target.

Premier Wen Jiabao said on March 5 at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the national legislature, that new yuan-denominated loans this year were expected to reach 5 trillion yuan.

In March alone, new yuan-denominated loans increased 1.89 trillion yuan. It was the third straight month that new loans exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

Nevertheless, mid-and-long-term loans accounted for more than half of the new bank credit in March. These loans would help the real economy to recover, said analysts.

The monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China, or the central bank, has said at its first-quarter meeting that the central bank would continue "the appropriately easy monetary policy" in coming months to boost investor confidence.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2009)