Official data from China's Bureau of Custom confirm that exports and imports by the world's second-largest economy had indeed fallen this January from a year ago.

China's shipments slid 0.5 per cent to $149.94 billion year-on-year in January, while imports likewise plummeted 15.3 per cent to $122.66 billion, the customs agency said in a statement.

The customs bureau attributed the latest figures to the continuing global fiscal crisis affecting most its trading partners, particularly the eurozone, as well as the period when factories closed for the recently -concluded Lunar New Year holiday. Most of China's factories and businesses suspend operations during the weeklong holiday to allow employees travel home to celebrate the most important festival in the Chinese calendar with their families. Only that for this year 2012, the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday fell in January which is earlier than the usual, triggering the distortions in the January data.

"Domestic demand was genuinely weak in January, while exports remained on a gradual downward trend," Yao Wei, a Hong Kong-based economist, said in Bloomberg News.

Another analyst, however, said numbers are just numbers and that they should not be taken at face value.

"Given the factories were closed, it's silly season for the numbers," Stephen Green, an economist with Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, told The Financial Times. "In the next three months, the slowdown will probably be exacerbated, but then China should climb back."

On Thursday, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said he had expected China to post lower exports numbers during the first month of the year.

On the other hand, China's trade surplus expanded to $27.28 billion in January from $16.52 billion in the previous month, the statement from the customs agency said.