Export figures suggest economic recovery

China’s exports in the first half of the year fell 21.7% year-on-year, a slight improvement from the first five months of 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported. The figures are seen by some as signaling that China’s economy is recovering. Speaking at a summit in Beijing, Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun said that he was confident about China’s trade outlook, though it was unlikely that the economy would return to the high growth rates seen in the past seven to eight years. Additionally, Ma Jiantang, the director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said China’s economy continued to improve in the second quarter, and that he didn’t believe inflation posed a risk to economic growth in the near term.