(Bloomberg) -- China’s exports and imports rose in yuan terms in June, even as the pandemic continued to ravage the global economy.
- Exports grew 4.3% in yuan terms in June from a year earlier, while imports rose 6.2%, the customs administration said Tuesday. Economists had forecast that exports would increase by 3.5% while imports would shrink by 4.7%. Values in dollars are due for release shortly.
Key Insights
- With countries such as the U.S. still unable to control the outbreak, there’s no sign of when global demand for Chinese exports will recover sustainably to pre-virus levels.
- The deterioration of relations with the U.S. adds to the uncertainty for trade, although China has been stepping up efforts to meet the terms of the trade deal.
- Positive net exports will provide some support to Chinese gross domestic product growth in the second quarter, after the historic 6.8% collapse in the first three months. The reading for GDP will be released Thursday.
- An increase in the trade balance “could be the major support for the second quarter’s GDP growth, but it could only help to a certain extent,” said Iris Pang, chief economist for greater China at ING Bank NV ahead of the data release.
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- In the first half of the year, exports of textile products including face masks surged by 32.4%. Exports of medicines and pharmaceutical products and medical equipment increased by 23.6% and 46.4%, respectively.
- Driven by the increase of people working from home, exports of laptops increased 9.1%.
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