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China’s trade surplus tops US$1tril despite plunge in US-bound exports
China’s trade surplus tops US$1tril despite plunge in US-bound exports
1 hour agoAFP
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Exports have served as a key economic lifeline for China as trade and relations with the US and others have fluctuated in recent years.
China’s President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump reached a tentative truce to their fierce trade war when they met in late October. (AFP pic)
BEIJING: China’s towering annual trade surplus surpassed US$1 trillion for the first time last month, data showed today, as a sharp drop in shipments to the US was offset by surging exports to other major markets.
Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump reached a tentative truce to their fierce trade war when they met in late October, agreeing on a pause to painful measures that included lofty tit-for-tat tariffs.
Exports have served as a key economic lifeline for China as trade and relations with the US and others have fluctuated in recent years.
That has helped temper a prolonged debt crisis in the country’s vast property sector and sluggish domestic spending, which have weighed on growth and are among the most pressing issues facing Beijing.
Exports climbed 5.9% year-on-year in November, reversing the slight decline recorded in October, the General Administration of Customs said.
The reading was also above a Bloomberg forecast of 4% growth.
The jump came despite a continued downturn in shipments to the US, which sank 28.6% to US$33.8 billion in November, the data showed.
“Weakness in exports to the US was more than offset by shipments to other markets,” Zichun Huang of Capital Economics wrote in a note.
“Exports are likely to remain resilient, thanks to trade rerouting and rising price competitiveness as deflation pushes down China’s real effective exchange rate,” Huang said.
