China’s export machine still isn’t working.

The Telegraph reports that exports from China were down 26.4% last month from the comparable period in 2008. Exports totaled $89 billion and imports came in at $75.4 billion so the company is still running a healthy surplus. Exports were up 0.2% over April while imports were up 4.4%.

I wouldn’t put too much faith in the slight increase in April. That’s probably nothing more than noise. Measuring economic activity to that fine a level even in a highly developed country is nearly impossible.

This would seem to belie some of the rosier forecasts of economic growth that keep popping up. If they are running anywhere close to 8% it has to be due to fiscal stimulus because their trade data wouldn’t seem to support it.