China’s Aug imports beat forecasts but exports shows signs of softening

BEIJING: China posted stronger-thanexpected import growth in August, reinforcing views that the world’s secondlargest economy is still expanding at a healthy pace despite tighter policy.

China’s imports grew 13.3 per cent from a year earlier, official data showed yesterday, handily beating analysts’ forecast of 10 per cent and accelerating from an 11.0 per cent pace in July.

Purchases of industrial commodities continued to lead the way as soaring steel prices boost Chinese mills’ appetite for high-quality foreign iron ore to feed a year-long construction boom.

“The strong import data suggests that domestic demand may be more resilient than expected in the second half to less accommodative monetary policy,” said Louis Kuijs at Oxford Economics in a note, referring to a clampdown on riskier forms of lending which is pushing up borrowing costs.

Exports showed signs of softening, however, with growth cooling to 5.5 per cent from a year earlier, roughly in line with analysts’ forecasts for a 6.0 per cent increase but down from 7.2 per cent in July.

Export growth was the slowest since shipments fell in February, but analysts don’t foresee a protracted slowdown for the world’s largest exporter as global demand still appears solid.

Germany’s BGA trade association now expects German exports to rise 5 per cent in 2017, double its earlier forecast, Die Welt newspaper reported on Friday.