German media: Weak Business in China has hit key German industries such as machinery manufacturing hard

As the world's second largest economy, the outlook for China's exports remains poor. Economic barometers show export orders falling again in May. China's export business grew a surprisingly good 3.5% in April, but that was because there were some pending orders since the Lunar New Year in late January. Bai Ming, of the China Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told China's Global Times that China's exports are bound to face new headwinds due to a lack of overseas orders.

China's imports fell 14.2 percent in April alone, but experts say the new downturn in May also needs to be put into perspective. Xing Zhaopeng, an economist at Australia's ANZ Bank, told Bloomberg: "The drop in imports was mainly due to higher year-ago figures and lower raw material prices." "Imports of most major imports have increased, indicating that China's economy is gradually recovering."

But global economic uncertainty prompted Beijing to announce in May that it would not set a specific growth target for the economy this year for the first time in nearly two decades. China's economy shrank 6.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, and in 2019 it grew 6.1 percent, still well within its 6.0-6.5 percent growth target.

However, the government plans to create about 9m new jobs this year, which requires economic growth of at least 3 per cent, according to experts. Trillions of dollars in fiscal stimulus could boost the struggling economy.