Hong Kong’s exports fell again in July as waning global demand and China’s slowing recovery continue to weigh on the city’s economy.

Overseas shipments dropped 9.1% from a year earlier, the Census and Statistics Department said Thursday. That was worse than the median estimate of a 8.8% decline in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Exports have been falling for more than a year.

Imports decreased 7.9%, compared with economists’ expectation of a 5.9% drop. The trade deficit was HK$30 billion ($3.8 billion).

Exports to Asia for the month declined by 11.6% from July 2022, a government spokesperson said in a statement accompanying the data. Shipments to mainland China plunged 15.2%, while those to Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines also dropped by double-digit percentages. Exports to the US and the EU also shrank.

“The difficult external environment will continue to weigh on Hong Kong’s exports performance,” a government spokesperson said in a statement.

The city’s shipments overseas have struggled in the past year as rising global inflation weighs on demand for goods, while a slowing economic recovery in mainland China also takes a toll. 

The trade figures are an added challenge for Hong Kong’s economy, the outlook for which has grown less optimistic recently as the city’s post-pandemic activity boom loses some steam.

Authorities recently narrowed their economic growth forecast for the year to a range of 4% to 5%. That came after gross domestic product expanded 1.5% in the April-to June period from a year earlier, much weaker than economists had projected.