China's foreign trade volume fell by 6 percent during the first quarter of 2015, according to official data from the Chinese government.

China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) said that the poor showing was in part due to a 14.6 percent decrease in March exports. China's foreign trade volume dropped by 13.5 percent last month from a year earlier, following an 11.3-percent increase in February.

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Huang Songping, a spokesman for the GAC said the decline is mainly due to a sluggish global economic recovery.

"Demand from the global market is down and export orders declined," said Huang. "According to our survey on 3,000 Chinese export companies, about 44% of them have shown export orders fell significantly since last October. In March, the proportion has risen to 47.3%, even worse than the previous level."

China has lowered its annual target for foreign trade growth to around 6 percent for 2015, from the 7.5-percent goal set for 2014.

Huang also said that the implementation of newly approved Free Trade Zones and the 'Belt and Road' initiative can help promote foreign trade.

"Preliminary calculation shows," said Huang, "China's foreign trade volume with countries along the routes of belt and road initiative in the first quarter was estimated at some 1,450 billion yuan, accounting for a quarter of China's total foreign trade in the same period, up 10 percent."

There are continued worries over foreign trade volume falling short of the target again for the fourth consecutive year.

Trade with China's biggest trading partner, The European Union, declined by 2.1 percent in the first quarter, while its second-largest partner, the U.S., increased 3.2 percent. However, trade with Japan fell 11 percent during the same period.

"Generally speaking, foreign trade is on the decline as the global recovery is sluggish, and domestic downward pressure is mounting," said Huang.

Huang attributed the decline to disruptions caused by the Spring Festival holiday and a high comparative base in March last year.

TagsChina's Foreign Trade Falls 6% During First Quarter, General Administration of Customs, Huang Songping, foreign trade volume