Jun. 1, 2012 (China Knowledge) - The top five export regions in China all saw significant slowdown in their exports in the first four months of this year, due to weakening external demand, according to the latest statistics released by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Guangdong Province, the country's biggest export region, recorded a 5.5% growth in exports, which stood at US$168.6 billion in the period. The growth rate was 27.3 percentage points than in the same period of 2011.

East China's Jiangsu Province came in second with export value of US$95.8 billion from January to April, which grew only 1.7% YoY, compared with a 23.1% increase in the first four months of 2011.

The exports of Zhejiang Province and Shanghai were US$62.3 billion and US$63.6 billion in the four-month period, up 4.2% and 1.2% YoY, respectively.

Shandong Province's exports fell 0.3% YoY to US$38.6 billion in the first four months, after growing 33.1% in the same period of last year.