MNI POLICY: China Trade Makes Full Rebound In Q3: Official

China's foreign trade grew 7.5% y/y in Q3, turning positive for the first time in 2020 and achieving "a full rebound," said Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs at a data release briefing on Tuesday.

Foreign trade declined 6.5% in Q1 and 0.2% in Q2.

Exports grew 10.2% y/y in the latest quarter while imports rose 4.3%. It was the sixth consecutive monthly increase for exports. In yuan terms, the volume of exports, imports and the combined figure all reached a historical high, Li said. Exports totalled CNY5 trillion in the quarter while imports hit CNY3.88 trillion.

On a nine-month basis, exports grew 1.8%, beating market expectations. Shipments of anti-coronavirus items and consumer electronic products, including laptops, drove export growth by 2.2 and 1.1. percentage points respectively, said Li.

IMPORTS IMPROVE

Import demand is improving as China continues to expand sources geographically and consume more commodities, especially meat, grain, aquatic products and fruits.

The country imported CNY91.39 billion worth of agricultural products from the U.S. in the first three quarters, an increase of 44.4% y/y, said Li, when asked to comment on China's sharply rising trade surplus with the U.S.

As of July, China had a 12.6% share of global trade, an increase of 1 pp from a year ago. The share of exports was 13.8% and that of imports was 11.3%, up 1.1 pp and 0.8 pp, respectively. All three were a record high, Li said, citing WTO data.