Chinese trade accelerates despite Delta disruptions
BEIJING—China’s import and export growth accelerated in August despite disruptions due to the spread of the coronavirus’s delta variant.
Exports rose 25.6 per cent over a year earlier to $294.3 billion (U.S.), up from July’s 18.9 per cent growth, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports rose 33.1 per cent to $236 billion, up from the previous month’s 28.7 per cent.
That came despite lingering disruptions in industrial production chains due to last year’s global economic shutdown and a renewed rise in infections in the U.S. and some other markets that has dampened consumer sentiment.
China has so far defied forecasts that export demand would level off as anti-disease controls eased, entertainment and other service industries reopened and foreign rivals returned to global markets.
This year’s trade figures are distorted by comparison with 2020. Global demand plunged in the first half after governments shut factories and shops to fight the pandemic. Chinese exporters reopened after the ruling Communist Party declared the virus under control in March 2020, while its foreign competitors were hampered by anti-virus curbs.
China’s exports to the United States rose 15.5 per cent in August over a year earlier to $51.7 billion, accelerating from July’s 13.4 per cent growth despite U.S. tariff hikes imposed in an enduring battle over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Imports of American goods increased 33.3 per cent to $14 billion, up from the previous month’s 25.5 per cent gain.
U.S. President Joe Biden has
yet to say whether he might roll back penalties imposed on Chinese imports by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
China’s global trade surplus narrowed by one per cent in August over a year earlier to $58.3 billion.
The politically volatile surplus with the United States widened by 10 per cent to $37.7 billion.
Chinese exports to the 27-nation European Union declined 9.9 per cent from a year ago to $46.2 billion while imports of European goods fell 22 per cent to $25.3 billion.
The trade surplus with Europe widened by 10.9 per cent to $20.9 billion.
China’s economic growth slowed to a still-robust 7.9 per cent over a year earlier in the latest quarter as a rebound from the pandemic levelled off.
Economic growth in the AprilJune period compared with the previous quarter, the way other major economies report results, was 1.3 per cent as factory and consumer activity returned to normal.
That was up from the January-March period’s 0.6 per cent expansion over the final three months of 2020 but still among the past decade’s weakest quarters.