China's November export, import growth shrinks; surplus with US record high

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 January 1 increase in Washington’s import tariffs.

Import growth also fell 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, reports Reuters.

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 January 1 US hike of tariffs to 25 per cent from 10 per cent on $200 billion of Chinese goods while they negotiate a trade deal.

November exports rose 5.4 per cent from a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed on Saturday, the weakest performance since a 3 per cent contraction in March.

Exports had risen 15.6 per cent 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 per cent.

Growth in imports for November slowed sharply to 3.0 per cent from a 21.4 jump in October, and far missed analysts’ forecast of 14.5 per cent.

China’s trade surplus with the United States was $35.55 billion in November, a record high and compared with $31.78 billion in the preceding month.

For trade with all countries, China’s surplus was $44.74 billion for November, compared with forecasts of $34 billion and October’s surplus of $34.02 billion.

On Thursday, the US reported that its trade deficit in October jumped to a 10-year high, and that the deficit with China that last month surged 7.1 per cent to a record $43.1 billion.