China’s imports from US set record in first quarter, but their trade imbalance grows on strong Chinese exports
- Analysts tie China’s broader import rise to higher global commodity prices and stronger domestic demand, particularly in construction sector
- China’s overall export growth stayed high in first quarter and ‘may now be peaking’, analyst says, as policy support is removed and vaccine roll-outs start to reverse pandemic-induced demand for Chinese goods
Against the backdrop of a transpacific rivalry and amid uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus, China’s imports are on the rise, with its purchases from the United States setting record highs in both March and the first quarter of the year.
Meanwhile, China’s export engine continues to fire on all cylinders.
Regarded as the world’s factory and categorised as a developing economy, China has long faced overseas scepticism about its trade practice of selling more to other nations than it is buying.
However, the country’s import growth rate in dollar terms rose 38.1 per cent in March – the same rate as in February, and the highest since May 2008 – far above the market expectations of a 24.5 per cent gain, according to official customs data released on Tuesday.
China’s trade surplus narrowed to US$13.8 billion in March – the lowest total since the January-February period last year, when the country recorded a deficit at the height of its coronavirus outbreaks.
The value of China’s imports from the US rose to US$17.29 billion in March and US$46.5 billion in the year’s first quarter. Both are the highest readings since 1993 when the data series began, the customs data shows. Imports of American goods in the first three months of the year rose 69.2 per cent from a year earlier, measured against a weak base from 2020’s coronavirus-hit first quarter.