AKIPRESS.COM - China's exports slumped more than expected in February, as weak global demand and seasonal factors added to pressure on the slowing economy, customs data showed on Tuesday, Xinhua state news agency reported.

Exports in dollar-denominated terms were more than 25 percent lower than in February 2015, worsening from the 11.2-percent decline in January and the sharpest drop since May 2009, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

In yuan-denominated terms, exports slumped 20.6 percent year on year to 821.8 billion yuan (126.3 billion U.S. dollars) in February, a steeper fall than 6.6 percent in January.

The data is "ringing alarm bells on the state of the factory sector," said Tom Orlik, chief Asia economist at Bloomberg.

Business inactivity around the Spring Festival holiday, which fell in early February this year, overstated the year-on-year export slump.

"Even so, looking at a year-to-date figure for the first two months of the year, the picture is only slightly less gloomy," Orlik wrote in a research note.

In the Jan.-Feb. period, exports in yuan-denominated terms went down 13.1 percent year on year to 1.96 trillion yuan, the GAC data showed. Imports dropped 11.8 percent to 1.35 trillion yuan, while total foreign trade was 12.6 percent lower than a year earlier at 3.31 trillion yuan.

Imports in February dropped 8 percent to 612.3 billion yuan, improving from the 14.4-percent fall a month earlier. In dollar terms, the contraction in imports also narrowed from 18.8 percent in January to 13.8 percent.

Exports were once a major driver for China's economy but became a drag on growth after the global financial crisis sapped demand.

Total foreign trade value in February fell 15.7 percent year on year to 1.43 trillion yuan, widening from the 9.8-percent decline seen in January.

China's foreign trade will probably continue to lose steam in the second quarter of the year as global economic fundamentals are unlikely to improve, according to analysis by investment firm China International Capital Corp.

In regional breakdown, China's trade in yuan-denominated terms with its biggest trade partner, the European Union, dropped 9.7 percent year on year in the first two months of 2016.