China’s trade gains slightly in April
Print Edition
CHINA’S trade rose marginally in April, rebounding from sharp declines in March and helping China’s economy to stabilize, data from the General Administration of Customs showed yesterday.
Exports increased 0.9 percent from a year earlier to US$188.5 billion last month, reversing the fall of 6.6 percent in March. Imports expanded 0.8 percent to US$170.1 billion, up from the 11.3 percent slump a month earlier.
That created a trade surplus of US$18.4 billion in April, up 1.8 percent on an annual basis and more than March’s surplus of US$7.7 billion.
“China’s export growth came in higher than expected, suggesting the effect of a high base early last year has gradually faded,” said Zhou Hao, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “The imports also beat market expectations, reflecting that the concerns over China’s commodity demand are overdone.”
Zhu Haibin, chief economist for China at JPMorgan, said the improvement in the April trade data highlighted a rise in exports to Europe and the United States, reinforcing the global theme of improving demand in developed markets.
“But China’s export sector may still be somewhat volatile in the near term,” Zhu said.
China’s trade with the European Union rose 8.5 percent in the first four months, while that with the US gained 2.4 percent.
Despite the encouraging signals, the outlook for China’s trade remains uncertain as contracts signed at the China Import and Export Fair in Guangdong Province last month, a barometer of future trade, dropped 12.6 percent from a year earlier.
Chang Jian, an economist at Barclays, said the small rise in exports and imports supported the view of a modest recovery in the second quarter.
China’s economy has been stabilizing since the State Council carried out a number of measures recently to support growth and employment.
They included lowering reserve requirements for rural banks and speeding up railway construction.
In the first quarter, China’s gross domestic product expanded 7.4 percent, the slowest in 18 months.
Analysts are expecting growth to pick up a little in the current quarter.
Chang said that the larger trade surplus in April would help to ease downward pressure on the yuan and support some recovery and two-way movements of the currency, which was at its weakest point in nearly 20 months.
China’s trade value edged down 0.5 percent in the first four months with exports contracting 2.3 percent and imports rising 1.4 percent.
The trade surplus decreased 41.1 percent year on year to land at US$35.2 billion.
Shanghai’s trade expanded 7 percent to 911.1 billion yuan (US$146.3 billion) in the January-April period, behind Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces in terms of value, the customs said.
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