SHANGHAI, April 2 — Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua called today for greater efforts to stabilise foreign trade amid a complex external environment, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Several top officials have in recent months warned of uncertainty in foreign trade, which helped drive the world’s second-largest economy in 2021, with global demand and high raw material costs potentially creating challenges.

"The more complicated the situation is, the more we should plan ahead and respond proactively,” Hu was quoted by the state media as saying.

Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in March that China’s economy faced multiple challenges at home and abroad this year, including "huge” pressure from uncertainty over global trade and still-lacklustre domestic consumption.

The recent Covid-19 resurgence across the country, prompting the financial hub of Shanghai to go through a staggered lockdown from last week, has heightened investor concern over disruption to economic activity and led some global investment banks to slash their economic growth forecast for China. — Reuters