BEIJING - CHINESE exports may have fallen in November from a year earlier and growth in industrial production could have slowed to about 5 per cent, Mr Fan Gang, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, said on Tuesday.

His comments are the latest indication that China, like many other Asian countries, suffered a sudden slump in demand last month as the fallout of September's bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers reverberated through the global economy.

A newspaper reported at the weekend that preliminary customs data suggest Chinese export growth in November could have shrunk from the year-earlier level for the first time in seven years.

Adding to fears of a slump in Chinese trade, Taiwan reported on Monday that its exports in November fell 23.3 per cent from a year earlier, the sharpest decline in seven years.

South Korea had already reported on Dec 1 an 18.3 per cent drop in exports in November from a year earlier.

Speaking at a financial conference, Mr Fan said the yuan's exchange rate was only a secondary reason for the deterioration in exports.

Mr Fan, who sits on the central bank's monetary policy advisory committee, said the rising trend of the yuan, or renminbi (RMB), was intact despite a modest depreciation in the currency last week against the dollar.

'I still believe China's RMB is still in the revaluation phase from past years through next year,' said Mr Fan, who was speaking in English.

If China had bowed to overseas pressure three years ago and sharply revalued the yuan , the result today would have been a steep drop in the currency and big trouble for the Chinese economy, said Mr Fan, who heads the National Economic Research Institute, a Beijing think-tank.

China revalued the yuan by 2.1 per cent in July 2005 and has since let it float in tightly managed bands. Since then it has risen an additional 18 per cent.

China will release economic data for November over the coming week.

Forecasts from 30 economists polled by Reuters centre on export growth in November of 15 per cent compared with a year earlier and industrial production growth of 7.1 per cent. -- THOMSON REUTERS