China’s trade flows are expected to maintain a growth of “low- to mid- single-digits” this year despite mounting pressure on the economy, said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

“The world economy is slowly recovering while the performance of consumption and investment is lacklustre in many economies,” the ministry said in an official report published on Tuesday.

The ministry also said that China’s economy still faces challenges this year, and that its trade flows, especially exports, are under increased pressure.

The devaluation by some countries of their national currency has led to sharp appreciation of the yuan against those currencies. That has “seriously affected the international competitiveness of China’s export products,” the report added.

The Ministry of Commerce did not identify the countries that it said were devaluing their respective currencies.

China has set a trade growth target for 2015 at 6 percent. In the first quarter of 2015, total trade was down 13.8 percent from a year earlier. Export sales were up 4.7 percent in the first three months compared with a year ago, while imports fell 17.6 percent in the same period.