March sees China exports resurgence

The Financial Times reports the dollar value of China’s exports grew faster than expected in March as import growth moderated from a February spike, restoring a trade surplus after the previous month saw the first deficit since early 2014. Exports grew 16.4% year on year in dollar terms in March, according China’s General Administration of Customs. That was well above a median estimate predicting a rise of 4.3% from economists surveyed by Bloomberg and appeared to represent a robust recovery from February’s fall of 1.3% in outbound shipments. Imports meanwhile rose 20.3% year-on-year in dollar terms, a far cry from February’s 38.1% but still visibly higher than a median forecast of 15.5% growth. Those flows produced a trade surplus of $23.9bn after February saw the first deficit in three years, coming close to double a forecast calling for a surplus of $12.5bn.