The phones have stopped ringing on the sales desk

The phones have stopped ringing on the sales desk: "The drying up of orders has brought a dramatic 26 per cent fall in China’s exports in the year to February. In the past seven months, exports have plummeted by $725 billion, with almost 90 per cent of this decline occurring in the first two months of 2009.

For an economy accustomed to phenomenal growth over the past 15 years – driven in large part by exports of mass-produced household products and consumer goods to (until now) ever-expanding Western markets – such figures ring alarm bells. In Beijing they have sparked fears of social and political unrest as unemployment has climbed and migrant workers are forced back into rural areas for subsistence living."