China’s exports increase 11.6% in August

Trade with US contracts, other partners show steady rise

China recorded sustained and stable improvement in its foreign trade in August, with exports maintaining a strong growth rate of 11.6 percent yearon-year, powered by recovering domestic manufacturing activity and the reopening of more overseas economies.

Analysts said that momentum in the world’s secondlargest economy will stabilize and promote the recovery of global economic growth in the upcoming months as the coronavirus pandemic eases.

China’s foreign trade reached 2.88 trillion yuan ($421.69 billion) in August, up 6 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released on Monday by the General Administration

of Customs (GAC).

Exports expanded 11.6 percent to 1.65 trillion yuan, but imports slid 0.5 percent – contrary to economists’ belief that imports would edge back into growth. The trade surplus was 416.59 billion yuan, an increase of 74.4 percent, according to the GAC.

The surge in exports recorded the second consecutive month of gains. China’s exports showed a surprising surge of 10.4 percent year-on-year in July.

“The strong gains in exports were expected, as most countries, except the US, have seen signs of an easing pandemic in recent months, so external demand is recovering,” Lian Ping, head of Zhixin Investment Research Institute, told the Global Times on Monday.

Europe and the US reopened various sectors of their economies earlier than expected, partially contributing to the rise in Chinese exports, said Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank under China’s Ministry of Commerce.

Domestic manufacturing ability also regained momentum and gradually got back to normal, further empowering export growth, Lian said.

Results of a private survey last week showed that China’s manufacturing activity expanded in August at the fastest pace in nearly a decade. The official manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) also showed manufacturing activity improved in August as the country continued to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The private Caixin PMI survey focuses on small and medium-sized firms, while official the PMI survey typically polls a large proportion of large and mostly state-owned firms.

“However, certain countries’ protectionist restrictions on exports to China, along with a number of countries’ limited supply due to the continued suspension of manufacturing, led to a drop in Chinese imports,” Bai said.

Lian noted that the weakerthan-expected level of imports indicated that China’s domestic demand has yet to recover.