China’s exports grew at a slower pace than expected in March, although global demand remained strong, while imports rose due to rising commodity prices.
Exports rose 30.6% in dollars in March from the previous year, customs data showed on Tuesday, below the 38% average forecast in a survey of Bloomberg economists. Imports jumped 38.1%, leaving a trade surplus of $ 13.8 billion for the month, well below the projected $ 52 billion.
Import record of success
Exports are also rebounding, but not as strong
Source: General Customer Administration of China
Although growth slowed from record gains in February, data indicates that the momentum for exports remained strong in March, as vaccine deployment and a recovery in global growth helped boost demand. .
“Superior export performance remains an issue of China’s recovery,” Peiqian Liu, an economist at Natwest Markets, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV, adding that it is due to “a combination of global demand in recovery, as well as China’s role in filling supply chain gaps. “
Peiqian Liu, an economist at Natwest Markets, talks about what the latest figures say about the health of the world’s second-largest economy and its prospects.
Markets: Asia “(Source: Bloomberg)
The figures are also distorted by the compared to early 2020, when the pandemic closed much of the world’s second largest economy. Over the weekend, Li Keqiang told experts and companies to do it look beyond the “base effect” and use other data and methods to assess the economic situation.
The World Trade Organization predicts that world trade would increase by 8% this year, the largest increase since 2010, after falling 5.3% in 2020. While it does not anticipate any prospects for China’s foreign trade, the nation’s trade ministry has said it will push for a stable development of foreign trade this year.
Xing Zhaopeng, China’s senior strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Shanghai, he said the increase in imports was due to higher volumes and commodity prices.
“Looking to the future, while rising commodity prices may increase import costs in the short term, the recovery in external demand could offset some of the impact,” he said.
Other details
- In in terms of yuan, exports rose 38.7% in the first quarter to 4.61 trillion yuan ($ 704 billion), while imports rose 19.3% to 3.86 trillion yuan. yuan, leaving a surplus of 759.3 billion yuan.
- Exports to the US increased 53.3% in March from the previous year, resulting in a trade surplus of $ 21.37 billion.
- For a breakdown of imports by country, click here.
– With the assistance of James Mayger, Lin Zhu, Yinan Zhao and Yujing Liu
(Updates with comments from economists.)