By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Growth in China’s exports and imports in December, with signs of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. But, strong demand has remained a major driver of Chinese exports.

grew 20.9% year-on-year in December, higher than the 20% in forecasts prepared by Investing.com but lower than November’s 22% growth. Although exports have outperformed most of 2021’s expectations, shipments are slowing down due to a decrease in overseas demand and higher costs.

The year-on-year growth was 19.5%, which is lower than the 26.3% forecasts by Investing.com as well as November’s 31.7% growth. The was $94.46 billion in December, higher than the $74.50 billion forecasts prepared by Investing.com and November’s $71.72 billion figure.

The total exports rose by 29.9% between 2021 and 2020, which was 3.6% more than the previous year. After falling by 1.1 percent in 2020, imports increased 30.1%% for 2019.

China will face two challenges in 2022, after its initial economic recovery.

In late December 2021, Xinhua reported that the country would roll out additional policies to assist exporters, and relieve the pressure on international logistics issues. The news agency cited Premier Li Keqiang’s meeting as an example.

China may also have unprecedented difficulty stabilizing foreign trade by 2022 due to other exporters increasing production and a lower base of comparability, Ren Hongbin (vice-minister of commerce ministry) said on December 30.

At the Central Economic Work Conference, which took place Dec. 8-10 2021, the government also pledged to keep growth in a manageable range and stabilize the economy by 2022.