A senior Chinese commerce official says China is under huge pressure to meet its trade growth target of 7.5 percent this year.
Zhang Ji is head of the foreign trade bureau with the commerce ministry.
"Both imports and exports have declined from January to April year-on-year. This double-dip is the first of its kind since early 2009. This situation partially reflects some of the deep-rooted problems in our foreign trade, such as sluggish overseas demand and a weakening of China's traditional trade advantages. As such, we are facing a very arduous task in achieving the government target of a 7.5 percent trade growth for the whole year. "
The official says China will have to achieve annualized growth of at least 11.3 percent every month for the rest of the year to reach the overall growth target.
Foreign trade volumes here in China have declined half-a-percent year on year from January to April, with exports down 2.3 percent.
A new series of government measures are said to be in the pipeline to try to stabilize foreign trade.
