Data from the Customs Administration showed exports rose 5.1 percent in July from a year ago, beating economists’ expectations for a 3 percent gain after June’s 3.1 percent fall.
But because imports jumped 10.9 percent from a year earlier, more than five times what analysts had forecast, the trade surplus of $17.8 billion was lower than expected.
The data immediately lifted financial markets, with the Australian dollar leaping a third of a cent, but economists said it was too early to say trade flows had turned a corner.
“I would call it normalisation, rather than recovery, of China’s exports and imports,” said Shen Jianguang, economist at Mizuho Securities Asia in Hong Kong.
“China is able to reach an annual growth rate of 5 percent in trade, but the official 8 percent target is a bit hard to hit.”
China, the world’s largest exporter, suffered its first fall in exports in 17 months in June, which led some analysts to say crumbling trade growth was testing Beijing’s appetite for slower but better-quality economic growth.
Source: www.euronews.com
