China’s exports surged 36 percent year on year in September while imports rose 31 percent, widening the monthly trade surplus to nearly $134 billion, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Wednesday. The figure exceeded every forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The year-to-date trade surplus reached $938 billion, up 8 percent from the same period a year earlier. China posted a full-year trade surplus record of $1.2 trillion last year.
Exports to US and EU climb
Exports to the United States grew 40 percent, and China’s trade surplus with the US stood at $34 billion. Shipments of high-technology products rose by nearly 64 percent in September.
China’s trade surplus with the European Union was $34.8 billion in September, nearly 21 percent higher than the same month last year. The widening surplus comes even as China and the EU agreed to limit imports of Chinese hybrid cars after months of dispute, and as trade tensions between Beijing and Washington have shown signs of stabilising.
Domestic demand stays weak
The export boom has unfolded alongside stagnant domestic consumption. Economists at HSBC Holdings Plc, led by Taylor Wang, said that with China-US trade relations stabilising and short-term trade tensions with the EU easing, policymakers should have more room to refocus on domestic demand, which remains sluggish.
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists noted that the share of countries running a trade deficit with China exceeding 3 percent of GDP has more than tripled since 2005. Of the 82 countries that ran a trade deficit with China last year, most are low-income developing economies.
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Source: General Administration of Customs
