CHINA's exports fell 8.8 per cent in August compared with a year earlier, marking their fourth consecutive month of decline in another hit for the ailing manufacturing sector in the world's second-largest economy, reports London's Financial Times.

The August contraction was less severe than a forecast fall of 9.2 per cent, according to analysts polled by Reuters, and better than a decline in July, when China's exports shed 14.5 per cent, the worst since the start of the pandemic.

Imports dropped 7.3 per cent in August, compared with a Reuters forecast of a nine per cent decline and a 12.4 per cent fall in July. The sustained weakness in trade comes as Chinese policymakers are grappling with turmoil in the property sector, one of the country's other main engines of economic growth.

Chinese trade buoyed economic activity during the country's Covid lockdowns, but exporters have struggled this year with high global inflation as western consumers cut back on electronics purchases.