Guangdong Sees Slower Export Growth due to SARS

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Guangdong Sees Slower Export Growth due to SARS

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Exports from south China's Guangdong Province, which contributes one third of the country's total exports, slowed due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the latest official figures show.

Experts fear the full impact of the disease will be felt until the end of the second quarter or even the third quarter.

Figures released Sunday by the Statistics Bureau of Guangdong provincial government show exports produced by large and medium-sized industrial firms totaled 237.2 billion yuan (28.9 billion USdollars) during the first four months of this year.

Analysts with the bureau said the growth rate represented an increase of 25.4 percent year on year, but a fall of 1.4 percent percentage points over the first quarter of this year.

They blamed the slowdown in export growth for the slower growthin industrial production by overseas-funded manufacturing firms inthe province, which borders Hong Kong.

Judging from the monthly growth rates, the analysts said the export-driven industrial belt in Pearl River Delta in Guangdong had been affected by SARS.

Manufacturing firms in China received fewer deals from overseasbusinessmen attending the country's major trade fair last month inGuangzhou, capital of the province.

Experts explained that the transportation department in the province reported a drop of 5.9 percent in freight shipment growth,while the growth rate of exports from local harbors for April was 1.7 percentage points less than that of the first quarter.

Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong, has said the province will move to counter the impact on the local economy and foreign trade.

He said the province remained confident about reaching its annual economic growth target of nine percent.

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