China's January imports & exports fall, complicating currency situation

China’s imports fell 19.9% from a year earlier in January as exports dipped 3.3% for the same period, Bloomberg reported, citing figures from the customs administration in Beijing. The drop in exports left a record trade surplus of US$60 billion. That surplus, combined with declines in exports and imports, complicates the government’s management of exchange rates after January’s currency depreciation. “China’s central bank will continue to use a slew of instruments, including fixing rates, open market operations and direct interventions, to prevent the RMB from weakening sharply,” wrote Liu Ligang and Zhou Hao of ANZ in a note.