Afternoon:
9°c
China "cannot be blindly optimistic" that its exports will improve next year, officials said today, as the Ministry of Commerce vowed to maintain stable trade policies.
Exports have been hit hard by the global financial turmoil, falling 18.8% in the first 11 months of this year.
Many economists expect exports to return to growth next year, but the ministry's statement is a reminder that policymakers will take time before they are confident that exporters are back on a more solid footing.
"The world economy will turn for the better in 2010 but the recovery will still not be on solid ground, the influence of the crisis will still be felt, external demand will have difficulty returning to its level before the global financial crisis," the ministry said on its website.
"China's external trade situation will be increasingly complex, our task more formidable and we cannot be blindly optimistic," it said in a statement summing up its plans for next year.
The world's third-largest economy is expected to grow at 8% in 2010.
Liu Mingkang, head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, also expressed caution over exports. "The situation will not immediately improve," Liu said.
