BEIJING: China’s exports rose in December, capping a year of stronger trade growth buoyed by a robust global economy. Exports rose 10.9 percent in dollar terms in December, the customs administration said Friday
That compares with a forecast of 10.8 percent in a Bloomberg survey
Import growth slowed to 4.5 percent, leaving a trade surplus of $54.69 billion.Full year data for 2017 show exports rose 10.8 percent in yuan terms while imports surged 18.7 percent. The 2017 trade surplus stood at 2.87 trillion yuan ($442.3 billion China’s trade surplus with the U.S. rose 13 percent in 2017 Demand for Chinese products is holding up as growth in major trade partners remains intact, and a feared trade war between China and the U.S. has yet to materialize. An imports boom is being driven by the economy’s unexpectedly robust expansion in 2017. Export growth will likely drop as the rapid appreciation in the yuan last year will start to hurt outbound shipments after a lag, and amid trade frictions between China and the U.S. said Zhao Yang, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong. “Import growth will slow too as China’s economic expansion slows amid weaker investment in manufacturing and property. Import growth outpaced that of exports significantly for the whole year of 2017, indicating that China’s growth profile has been experiencing a transition as domestic demand has been picking up, said Zhou Hao, a senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. “China is on its way to re-balancing its growth model and it makes sense to accelerate the deleveraging process as growth looks fine over the foreseeable future.
