CHINA’S exports and imports will show stable and modest growth in the first quarter of 2012 despite difficult trade conditions, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

    “Although the trade situation in the first quarter will be difficult, China’s exports as well as imports will show stable and modest growth,” Shen Danyang, the commerce ministry’s spokesman, told a regular news conference.

    Shen said China’s relatively cheap labor and policy incentives would keep exporters competitive and help the world’s second biggest economy achieve its trade growth goals.

    China aims to increase foreign trade by around 10 percent this year, a much slower pace than 2011, as it faces a “grim” outlook for boosting exports, Xinhua quoted Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, as saying last week.

    Zhang said China’s foreign trade will be hurt by weak external demand, increasing trade competition, a stronger yuan and other factors.

    The customs agency said earlier this month that China’s exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December, providing fresh evidence of cooling domestic and global economic conditions that could push the government towards a more pro-growth policy stance.

    The total value of China’s imports and exports finished 2011 at an all-time high of US$3.6 trillion. But the overall trade surplus shrank to a three-year low of US$155 billion from 2010’s US$183.1 billion.

    China’s relatively robust growth has been a rare bright spot for a struggling global economy. But growth has slowed in recent months after the government tightened lending and investment curbs to prevent overheating.

    A slump in demand for Chinese goods abroad has prompted the government to reverse course and promise to help struggling exporters and shore up growth with more bank lending and other measures. It is unclear what impact the measures will have.

    Chinese export growth has fallen steadily since August as Europe’s debt crisis and high U.S. unemployment hurt demand. But it has stayed in double digits, showing the competitive strength of Chinese exporters in global markets.(SD-Agencies)