China’s exports fell in July, pushed mainly by weaker external demand, China’s official press reported over the weekend.

According to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua, official data from China’s General Administration of Customs revealed exports dropped in July by 8.9 percent year-on-year to 1.19 trillion yuan (US$191.7 billion).

The fall of overseas shipments in July followed a year-on-year increase in June, state-run newspaper China Daily noted.

Imports to China during July declined by 8.6 percent to 930.2 billion yuan, Xinhua added.

The media outlet quoted Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at private sector bank HSBC, as saying the drop in Chinese exports was due to a weaker external demand, mainly in shipments to the European Union and Japan.

Exports to the European Union declined by 2.5 percent in the first seven months of 2015 from a year earlier, while sales to Japan registered a 10.5-percent fall year-on-year during the same seven-month period, Xinhua reported.

The news outlet added that, from January to July, China’s foreign trade slipped 7.3 percent year-on-year to 13.63 trillion yuan. But the country’s trade surplus doubled in the first seven months of 2015, to 1.87 trillion yuan compared to the same period last year.