China July exports slow sharply

China's export growth slowed sharply in July to a six-month low following dwindling demand from Europe and Japan, official data showed Friday.

Exports rose 1 percent year on year to 176.9 billion U.S. dollars in July, plummeting from the 11.3-percent growth seen in June and well below market expectations, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Friday.

Imports increased 4.7 percent year on year to 151.8 billion U.S. dollars, compared with a growth of 6.3 percent in June.

The trade surplus narrowed 16.8 percent year on year to 25.2 billion U.S. dollars in July, taking the combined trade surplus to 94.1 billion U.S. dollars for the first seven months of the year.

Foreign trade expanded 2.7 percent year on year to 328.7 billion U.S. dollars in July, according to the GAC data.

In the January-July period, total foreign trade reached 2.17 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of 7.1 percent year on year, lower than the 10-percent growth targeted by the government for the whole of 2012.

Meanwhile, exports rose 7.8 percent year on year to 1.13 trillion U.S. dollars in the first seven months.

China's trade with the EU, its largest trading partner, dipped 0.9 percent in the January-July period from a year earlier to 315.8 billion U.S. dollars, the figures showed.

During the period, trade with Japan also slipped 0.2 percent year on year to 190.9 billion U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, trade with the United States, the country's second-biggest trading partner, went up 10.5 percent year on year to 271.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months, according to the GAC.