China’s imports grew 13.3 percent from a year earlier, official data showed on Friday, handily beating analysts’ forecast of 10 percent, after rising 11.0 percent in July.
Imports of industrial commodities continued to lead the way as soaring steel prices boost Chinese mills’ appetite for high-quality foreign iron ore.
Exports showed some signs of softening, however, with growth cooling to 5.5 percent from a year earlier, roughly in line with analysts’ forecasts for a 6.0 percent increase but down from 7.2 percent in July.
Export growth was the slowest since shipments fell in February, but may not necessarily suggest broader global demand is faltering.
Germany’s BGA trade association now expects German exports to rise 5 percent in 2017, double its earlier forecast, Die Welt reported today.
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Global manufacturing activity also expanded strongly in August, adding to views that demand was holding up in the current quarter.
Also, China has tended to lag export trends seen elsewhere in North Asia this year. Neighbouring South Korea last week posted sharply higher shipments for August.
The surging yuan is complicating China’s trade picture.
Some Chinese exporters have been complaining of losses due to a sharp turnaround in the yuan currency, which has now gained around 7 percent against the US dollar so far this year, much of it in the past few months.
The Chinese currency rose 2.1 percent against the dollar in August alone.
The mixed performance left China with a trade surplus of £32 billion for August, the General Administration of Customs said, the lowest since May.
Analysts were expecting China’s trade surplus to have widened to £37.11 billion in August from July’s £35.68 billion.