The import and export data of China for September are worse than expected as per the latest report from Reuters that were cited using customs data, due to the trade friction with United States. While the country’s exports fell by 3.2 % during September when compared to last year, its imports fell by 8.5 % during same period as per Reuters report. Also China’s trade balance during September stood at $39.65 billion.
Economists, polled by Reuters were expecting exports in US dollar terms to retract by 3 % and imports to fall by 5.2 % during September when compared to last year’s figures and the overall trade surplus was forecasted at $33.3 billion. During August this year Chinese exports in US dollar terms fell by 1 %YoY its biggest shortfall since June as shipments to United States reduced drastically.
As per data derived from Chinese customs, during this period the imports of China also dropped by 5.6 % which led to trade surplus by $34.83 billion. If one were to look at data as per Chinese Yuan its imports fell by 6.2 % during September while exports fell by 0.7 % since last year. According to China economist Martin Lynge Rasmussen of Capital Economics, the exports from China would take some time to recover and resume. He added that the mini-deal announced late last week had not brought much change to the situation and exports are likely to remain subdued in forthcoming quarters. The import growth has been witnessing gradual slowdown in past few quarters and now appears quite weak when related to economic growth. The Chinese economy is growing but at a slow pace. Trump said that in the new phase of trade deal with China, the latter has agreed to purchase $40 – $50 billion worth farm products from USA and will also address concerns related to intellectual property theft and currency manipulation.
