The depreciation of the Chinese yuan has been one of the biggest market stories of the past year.

And on Tuesday, investors confronted a surprising wrinkle in that narrative when China reported that exports continued to shrink in October, a trend that has persisted for the past year despite the currency falling last month to its weakest level against the dollar in more than six years.

This flouts conventional wisdom, which suggests that a weaker currency allows companies to sell their goods abroad at lower price points, typically leading to a pickup in demand.

So far, this pickup has yet to materialize, which could be a big problem for the world’s second-largest economy. China’s trade surplus increased to $49.1 billion in October — that’s slightly better than September’s $42 billion, but still short of a FactSet consensus forecast of $51.7 billion.

Exports have now fallen 7.3% over the past year. Meanwhile, imports recovered in October, but remained lower on a year-over-year basis.

This is a problem for China, analysts say, as the country still depends on exports to drive economic growth, despite leaders’ efforts to rebalance the economy to be more dependent on domestic consumption.

To be sure, some Chinese firms have lowered dollar prices for their goods, which accounts for some of the drop, according to a team of China economists at Capital Economics.

But still, “the lack of a more significant pick-up in shipments last month is disappointing given the apparent strengthening in global demand.”

Ultimately, whatever happens to the currency may not matter. That’s because the drop in Chinese exports is, fundamentally, a global growth story, according to Capital Economics.

“The scope for a more significant recovery in global demand (and therefore Chinese exports) is probably limited given our view that the current pace of global growth is likely to be as good as it gets for the foreseeable future,” according to Capital Economics.

The lackluster trade figures contrast with the sanguine reports on industrial and service-sector activity released two weeks ago, which is a puzzling discrepancy. Output at Chinese factories rose to a more than two-year high in October. A reading on services-sector activity was similarly optimistic. According to this data, demand from foreign buyers rose in October.

This points to another dimension in the story of the yuan: Though its has weakened sharply against the dollar, its moves against other rivals have been far more modest, a phenomenon that Neil Dutta, head of economics at Renaissance Macro Research, noted in a research note published Monday.

In recent weeks, the yuan has been flat against the yen JPYCNY, 0.01 and euro CNYEUR, -0.11% , while continuing to depreciate against the dollar — a trend that’s likely to continue as long as China’s central bank continues to tolerate a steady pace of capital outflows, Dutta said.

As the boost from the country’s massive stimulus programs dissipates, investors will keep an ever-closer eye on the yuan, as well as the country’s trade data, as they try to assess whether slowdown in Chinese growth will resume after stabilizing in 2016.