BEIJING • Chinese exports grew by more than expected last month, Customs data showed yesterday, as coronavirus disruptions around the world fuelled demand for Chinese goods even as a stronger renminbi made exports more expensive for overseas buyers.
A robust domestic recovery also spurred Chinese appetite for foreign products last month, with import growth quickening from the month prior and beating expectations in a Reuters poll.
Exports rose 18.1 per cent last month from a year earlier, slowing from a 21.1 per cent jump in November but beating expectations for a 15 per cent rise. Imports increased 6.5 per cent year on year last month, topping a 5 per cent forecast and picking up pace from November's 4.5 per cent growth.
Buoyant exports helped drive an impressive rebound in China's manufacturing sector last year, as the pandemic wreaked havoc abroad. China is expected to be the only major economy to have seen positive growth last year. Exports grew 3.6 per cent over the full year and imports fell 1.1 per cent.
While the pandemic will bring challenges, a reviving global economy and a steady recovery in China's domestic economy provide a foundation for China to maintain trade growth this year, said Customs spokesman Liu Kuiwen at a briefing.
Going forward, analysts say, sustained demand for medical supplies and work-from-home products from coronavirus-hit trading partners should support Chinese exports.
But some worry a rise in raw material prices and in the renminbi could squeeze exporters' profits. The onshore renminbi strengthened 6.7 per cent last year - its first annual rise in three years.
"Exports continued to do well last month, as renewed lockdowns abroad ensured the shift in consumption from services to goods persisted in many of China's trading partners," said Capital Economics' senior China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard in a research note.
But he expects exports and imports to fall late this year as last year's stimulus runs out and overseas consumption returns to pre-pandemic patterns as vaccines boost a recovery.
"We think trade will remain resilient in the near term but will soften later this year," he added.
China posted a trade surplus of US$78.17 billion (S$103.6 billion) last month - the highest reading on Refinitiv records going back to 2007. Analysts in the poll had expected the trade surplus to narrow to US$72.35 billion from US$75.40 billion in November.
China's trade surplus with the United States, with which it has waged a bitter trade war in recent years, narrowed to US$29.92 billion last month from US$37.42 billion in November.
United States President-elect Joe Biden has said he will not immediately cancel the phase one trade agreement that outgoing President Donald Trump struck with China, nor take steps to remove tariffs on Chinese exports.
REUTERS
