Record trade surplus as imports fall
December 15, 2014 Category Foreign trade, Weekly
China’s trade surplus hit a record high in November as imports fell. Imports, defying market hopes of a mild growth, fell 6.7% to USD157.1 billion last month. It was the first drop since August and a reversal from October’s rise of 4.6%. Exports rose 4.7% from a year earlier to USD211.6 billion in November, slower than the pace of 11.6% in October. The trade surplus totaled USD54.5 billion last month, up 61.4% year-on-year and above October’s USD45.4 billion. “The fall in imports suggested that China’s economy was still under great downward pressure,” said Lian Ping, Chief Economist at the Bank of Communications (BoCom). As the combined export and import figure in the first 11 months rose 3.4% year-on-year, China will miss its trade growth target of 7.5% for a third consecutive year. Lian said China may cut interest rates again – a view shared by Wang Tao, a UBS Economist – in the remainder of this year or early next year. In the first 11 months, China’s trade with the European Union, the country’s biggest trading partner, rose 8.9%, while that with the United States gained 5.2%. The record-high trade surplus provided stimulus for the Shanghai Composite Index to surpass 3,000 points for the first time in more than three and a half years, but the stock market crashed a day later.
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