China’s trade with the rest of the world continued to shrink in November, but there were also some small positives in the detail – not much, but enough to say the data wasn’t all bad.
China’s exports fell in November for the fifth month in a row, thanks to weak demand from some of the country’s biggest markets in Europe, the US, Asia, and Japan.
But imports were better than expected – but not by much – as Chinese buyers boosted imports of iron ore, copper, oil soybeans and other commodities whose prices have plunged in recent months.
But there was another sizeable monthly trade surplus – more than $US54.1 billion, the fifth largest on record, down from the all time high of $US61.64 billion in October.
November exports fell 6.8% from a year ago, while imports fell 8.7% in the same period, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs.
The fall in the value of imports reflect both the fall in prices of commodities such as oil, iron ore, and copper, and came despite higher volumes.
Separately, yuan-denominated data showed a 3.7% fall in exports from a year earlier, while imports fell 5.6%.
The government reported that in the first 11 months, foreign trade dropped 7.8% year on year to 22.08 trillion yuan. Exports fell 2.2% to 12.71 trillion yuan and 14.4% for imports to 9.37 trillion yuan for imports. As a result the trade surplus surged 63% to 3.34 trillion yuan.
The trade surplus with the European union (the biggest trading partner) fell 7.7% in the 11 months, but was up nearly 2% with the US. Trade with ASEAN countries fell 2.1%, but plunged more than 10% with Japan.
By value, China’s imports from the United States, the European Union and Japan all dropped in November, and in the case of Australia by a double-digit rate. thnks to the crash in iron ore, copper, oil and LNG prices.
The news saw China’s stockmarkets join others across the region in falling. The key Shanghai market was down 1.9% by the close, as the commodities rout battered resource shares and other leading stocks.
That rout continued in European and US trading overnight. The China figures had no impact on Australia or the value of the Aussie dollar which dipped under 72 US cents.
