Chinese exports dropped more than expected last month, data released by the Chinese General Administration of Customs yesterday showed, deepening concerns about the trade outlook for the world’s No. 2 economy as US president-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
The disappointing figures come as the country tries to position itself as a leader of the global trade regime in anticipation of a US retreat under its proudly protectionist new leader.
“There remain some obstacles facing China’s foreign trade development,” customs spokesman Huang Songping (黃頒平) told reporters at a news conference announcing the results, adding that the international trading environment was “severe and complex.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Exports slipped 6.1 percent to US$209.4 billion last month, data showed, much worse than the 4 percent tipped in a survey by Bloomberg News.
Imports were essentially in line with expectations, rising 3.1 percent to US$168.6 billion, while the trade surplus dropped nearly a third year-on-year to US$40.8 billion.
Figures for the whole year showed an even sharper decline, with exports down 7.7 percent to US$2.1 trillion and imports dropping 5.5 percent to US$1.59 trillion.
Customs had earlier released the figures in yuan terms, showing a 2 percent decline in exports last year.
The yuan’s recent slide against the US dollar to eight-year lows helped lift exports in November, but the outlook for this year is shaky after Trump threatened to label China a currency manipulator and slap punitive tariffs on its goods.
The renewed export slump came despite signs of recovering global demand at the end of last year, a trend reflected by positive trade data in Taiwan and South Korea, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a research note.
It is concerning “given that the current environment of rising prices and relatively buoyant global manufacturing growth ought to have been supportive of Chinese trade values,” he said.
Moreover, this year offers more downside risks as Trump has appointed hard-liners to handle trade policy, he said.
The billionaire businessman’s pick of outspoken China critic Peter Navarro to head the White House National Trade Council has alarmed Beijing.
Navarro has written books such as Death by China that accuse Beijing of waging economic war by subsidizing its manufacturing industry and blocking US imports.
The global trade regime has been built around US demand and its large deficits with trade partners; China consistently runs huge trade surpluses with the US and other nations as the workshop of the world — a mainstay of the decades-long boom that has propelled it to become the world’s second-largest economy.
Last year, China’s trade surplus reached US$510 billion, customs data showed.
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