Canton Fair Points to More Export Pain

In October 2013, I posted: Chinese Economy To Slow in 2014

The graph is from this post at China Economics Seminar blog: What does the Canton Fair tell about Chinese economy?
In late 2014: Another Plunging Data Point: Canton Fair Visits Down

Orders were down 8.6% currency adjusted and visits down 1.9% at the October fair.

The spring 2015 Canton Fair: China's Canton Fair sees shrinking turnover, fewer buyers

The Canton Fair in the Pearl River Delta, a gauge of China's economy and foreign trade conditions, said total exports amounted to 172.1 billion yuan (18 billion pounds) for the spring session, down 9.6 percent from the same period in 2014 and a 3.96 percent decline from the previous fair in November.

...The number of buyers attending the fair fell 0.7 percent from the previous session to 184,801. Buyers from Europe showed the biggest drop of 17.88 percent from a year earlier to 30,383, representing 16.44 percent of the total.

The numbers may not be as bad as they look: visits would have been up had it not been for the drop in European visitors. It doesn't change the fact that the numbers are a good predictor of trade though.