China’s exports fall more than 20% in February; overall trade data come in much weaker

China on Friday reported worse than expected trade data for the month of February, customs data showed amid Beijing’s trade dispute with the U.S.

Dollar-denominated exports fell 20.7 percent for the month of February from a year ago, missing economists’ expectations of a 4.8 percent decline, according to a Reuters poll. January exports rose 9.1 percent from a year ago.

Dollar-denominated imports fell 5.2 percent in February from a year ago, missing economists’ forecast of a 1.4 percent fall. January imports fell 1.5 percent on-year.

China’s February trade balance was also weaker than expected at $4.12 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had expected trade balance to come in at $26.38 billion. Trade balance in January was $39.16 billion.

China is currently in the midst of a two-week long annual parliamentary meeting, the National People’s Congress, which kicked off on Tuesday and ends next Friday (Mar. 5-15).

At the opening of that meeting this week, Premier Li Keqiang said the Chinese economy will likely slow this year, and revealed that the official economic growth target for 2019 will be 6.0 to 6.5 percent. That compares to an expansion of 6.6 percent in 2018 — its slowest growth since 1990.

Reuters contributed to this report.