China's November export, import growth shrinks; surplus with US record high
BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s exports increased far less than expected in November, apparently indicating that slowing global demand outweighed any gains from a rush to ship goods to the United States ahead of a now-postponed Jan. 1 increase in Washington’s import tariffs.
Import growth also fall sharply in November to the slowest pace since October 2016, which signals continuing weakness in domestic demand and could prompt Chinese policymakers to increase efforts to lift it to aid the slowing economy.
The November headline trade numbers came out less than a week after Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce delaying the planned Jan. 1 US hike of tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion of Chinese goods while they negotiate a trade deal.
November exports rose 5.4 percent from a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed on Saturday, the weakest performance since a 3 percent contraction in March.
Exports had risen 15.6 percent in October from a year earlier, and a Reuters poll of 26 economists had forecast November shipments from the world’s largest exporter would increase 10 percent.
Growth in imports for November slowed sharply to 3.0 percent from a 21.4 jump in October, and far missed analysts’ forecast of 14.5 percent.