China’s exports unexpectedly rose last month as demand from most Asian countries and Europe improved, and as the nation’s factories resumed production, boosting the economy’s outlook.
Exports jumped 14.8 percent in US dollar terms last month from a year earlier, partly driven by an uptick in shipments to Southeast Asian nations, along with resilient demand from South Korea and Europe.
Economists had forecast a fall surpassing 7 percent, and the surprisingly strong result was the most significant divergence from expectations since at least 2018.
Photo: AFP
Imports declined 1.4 percent, leaving a trade surplus of US$88.2 billion for the month, the Chinese General Administration of Customs said yesterday.
Over the past three years, booming export demand was a strong support for the world’s second-largest economy, and helped compensate for weak domestic spending caused by the country’s housing market slump and COVID-19 restrictions.
Exports began to contract from late last year as demand from the US, the EU and other countries all lost momentum. The rise last month was the first in six months.
“It was very surprising indeed,” Societe Generale SA economist Michelle Lam (林雪潔) said.
“Much of the rebound was likely driven by easing supply disruptions. Its impact on exports and production was likely far more serious than previously envisaged,” Lam said. “Therefore, today’s data seem to suggest the slowdown in external demand is not as concerning as previously thought.”
Stocks in China and Hong Kong pared losses after the data, with Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese shares traded in Hong Kong down 0.6 percent at the midday break. It fell 2.3 percent earlier in the day. The yield on 10-year government bonds rose one basis point, set for the first increase in five sessions, while the yuan was little changed.
The rebound in exports was a surprise since indicators earlier this month seemed to suggest the weakness had continued.
South Korean exports, a bellwether for global trade, plunged further last month, although that nation’s trade is much more reliant on the electronics industry than China.
“The strong March reading could reflect some monthly volatility caused by shifts in demand and capacity to get goods out the door during the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in January this year,” Bloomberg economist Eric Zhu (朱懌) said.
“The March performance could reflect catch-up — which won’t last. Looking ahead, we see weakening global demand weighing exports, even if companies no longer need to worry about pandemic-related disruptions to production and logistics,” Zhu said.
“China’s foreign trade in the first quarter showed relatively strong resilience and came off a stable start to the year with signs of improvement,” Chinese General Administration of Customs spokesman Lyu Daliang (呂大良) said in Beijing.
However, difficulties and challenges remain, due to high global inflation, slowing growth in major economies, rising protectionism and geopolitical risks, he added.
The WTO last week said that global trade could slump below historical growth trends this year, reaching 1.7 percent amid geopolitical tensions and economic pressures including inflation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, monetary policy tightening and financial market uncertainty.
Trade weakness is also being seen in factory sentiment data.
In yuan terms, China’s exports rose about 23 percent last month from a year ago, up from 5.2 percent in February, while imports increased about 6.3 percent last month after rising 11.1 percent in February, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS