China’s February exports soar, imports fall
Print Edition
CHINA’S exports surged in February while imports continued to tumble to give the country a new monthly trade surplus record again, official data showed yesterday.
Exports climbed 48.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.04 trillion yuan (US$166 billion) last month, the General Administration of Customs said. The growth reversed a decline of 3.2 percent in January — the first fall in 10 months.
Imports tumbled 20.1 percent to 666.1 billion yuan, the worst since 2009 and deteriorating further from the 19.7 percent dive of a month earlier.
China posted a record-high monthly trade surplus of 370.5 billion yuan in February, up from 366.9 billion yuan in January. The surplus compared with a trade deficit of 137.3 billion yuan in February 2014.
For the first two months, China’s trade surplus amounted to 737.4 billion yuan, or 11.6 times the figure a year earlier.
Seasonal factors were attributed to the sharp volatility of China’s trade in the past two months, customs said. The Spring Festival holiday, which fell in February this year, occurred in January 2014.
Zhou Hao, an analyst with Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, said “the trade surplus shot to a startling high level” as exports grew strongly “due to the base effect as the comparative figures last year were extremely low following Chinese authorities’ crackdown on illegal trade flows.
In the first two months, China’ trade contracted 2 percent year on year, with exports up 15.3 percent and imports down 19.9 percent.
The data came after China cut its annual target of foreign trade increase to around 6 percent for this year, from the 7.5 percent goal for 2014.
But the dismal trade figures at the start of this year may raise concerns of a deepening economic slowdown, and more easing policies are needed, said Xue Jun, an analyst at CITIC Securities Co.
ANZ’s Zhou warned there may be strong headwinds for exports. New export orders, a component under the official Purchasing Managers’ Index that measures the manufacturing sector, has stuck below the dividing level of 50 for five straight months in February, indicating fewer new export orders.
Meanwhile, exhibitors at the East China Fair, dubbed as a harbinger for the trade outlook which ended last week in Shanghai, said the value of deals concluded fell by 7 percent from a year earlier.
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