Investing.com – China’s April exports exceeded estimates while imports surged, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.
Exports denominated in yuan rose 3.7% in April from a year earlier, while imports rose 11.6%, resulting in a trade surplus of 182.8 billion yuan ($28.72 billion) for the period. These are compared to the 5.9% gain in imports and a decline of 9.8% in exports in March.
In dollar terms, exports in April rebounded from a drop in March and rose 12.9%, while imports surged 21.5%.
Analysts had previously expected exports in dollar terms to rise 6.3% on year, while import growth was expected to pick up to 16%.
The data came after the U.S.-China trade talks last week in Beijing, where the U.S. asked China to cut the trade deficit by at least $200 billion by 2020.
“We don’t expect all core differences in the U.S.-China trade relationship to be resolved,” Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS Group AG in Hong Kong, wrote in a recent report. “Lingering trade tension and uncertainty will likely negatively affect China’s export orders and related business investment.”
China’s export outlook is being clouded by an escalating trade dispute with the United States as well as a potential full-scale trade war, as the two nations threatened each other with tariffs since the beginning of the year.
The impact of the data on equities seemed to be limited however, as the Shanghai Composite and the SZSE Component traded 0.9% and 0.7% higher respectively by 12:10AM ET (04:10 GMT).