China's economy continues to slow amid decline in exports

China's economy continued to slow down as declining exports and imports impacted revenues, raising fears about the strength of the world's second-largest economy.

The weaker-than-expected data sparked speculation that Beijing may introduce stimulus measures to spur growth.

The official data released today showed China's export and import growth fall for the second straight month in July.

The export growth slowed sharply in July to a six-month low following dwindling demand from Europe and Japan.

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Exports rose by mere one percent year on year to USD 176.9 billion in July, plummeting from the 11.3 percent growth seen in June and well below market expectations, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

Imports rose by 4.7 percent year on year to USD 151.8 billion compared with a growth of 6.3 percent in June.

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

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Meanwhile data released by the Finance Ministry also indicated drop in fiscal revenues. China's fiscal revenues grew 8.2 percent year on year to USD 168.77 billion in July.

During the first seven months of the year, the fiscal revenues expanded by 11.6 percent to 7.45 trillion yuan, down from the 30.5-percent growth seen in the same period last year, official Xinhua quoted a finance ministry statement as saying.

The ministry attributed the slower growth to the slowing economy, dropping inflation and structural tax reductions.

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China's economy expanded 7.8 percent year on year in the first half of 2012, down 1.8 percentage points as compared to during the same period of previous year.

The inflation rate, meanwhile, eased to a 30-month low of 1.8 percent in July, according to official data.

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

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

But trade with the United States, the country's second-biggest trading partner, went up 10.5 percent year on year to USD 271.4 billion in the first seven months, according to the official data.

According to analysts, the data was weaker-than-expected and may see Beijing introduce stimulus measures to spur growth.