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BEIJING, Oct. 30 -- The weaker external demand and tighter credit control at home have slowed the growth in Shanghai's trade by 3.6 percentage points from a year ago to 20.5 percent in the first three quarters, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau said yesterday.

The city's exports expanded 23 percent to 127.9 billion U.S. dollars through last month, a fall of 3 percentage points from a year earlier, while imports rose 17.9 percent to 119.7 billion dollars, down 4.3 percentage points. Shanghai posted a total trade value of 247.6 billion dollars during the period.

"The global economic slowdown, which led to sagging demand in overseas markets, caused the slight slowdown in export growth while tighter credit control and rising production costs in China also prevented imports from rising," said Hu Jinrong, an analyst with the bureau.

In the first nine months, the city's exports bound for the United States, where the ongoing global financial crisis started, grew only 11.6 percent, a decline of 12.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Growth of exports to Hong Kong also slowed to 6.3 percent, down 18.3 percentage points.

But exports to emerging markets including countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Latin America jumped 30.8 percent and 41.9 percent respectively.

The city's state-owned enterprises were at the forefront of the imports as they purchased products and materials worth 25.9 billion dollars to notch a growth of 12.8 percent although this was 5 percentage points lower from a year ago. Foreign-funded firms also bought less in line with the declining demand. Their spending jumped 18.1 percent to 81.7 billion dollars, down 5.6 percentage points.

But the imports of energy and natural resources actually quickened in the first three quarters.

Sales of imported luxuries rose sharply after a tax cut.