China’s overseas demand remains strong as exports surge, but tariff impact looms
- China’s export growth exceeded market expectations in June, while imports fell from a year earlier, data released on Friday showed
China’s exports grew at the fastest pace in 15 months in June due to strong global demand and buyers potentially front-loading orders ahead of impending tariffs, but imports fell short of expectations due to sluggish domestic demand.
Analysts, though, said China’s foreign trade could slow down amid escalating geopolitical tensions for the rest of the year despite June’s exports by value also reaching a 21-month high.
But imports fell by 2.3 per cent from a year earlier, compared to the 1.8 per cent growth seen in May, falling short of positive projections by Wind, Bloomberg and Reuters.
In the first half of the year, China’s exports reached US$1.71 trillion, up by 3.6 per cent year on year, while imports grew by 2 per cent.
“[The export growth in June] indicates that overseas demand remains strong. Coupled with low product prices due to China’s deflationary pressure and the relatively low exchange rate of the yuan, Chinese products still share robust competitiveness globally,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China at Standard Chartered.