CHINA maintained solid export growth of 12.6 percent in May, slightly slower than in April, but still providing good news for policymakers as they deal with trade negotiations with Washington.

Imports also rose more than anticipated in May and at the fastest pace since January, with the data coming at a time when China has pledged to its trade partners — including the United States — that steps would be taken to increase imports.

China, the world’s largest exporter, has so far escaped any major blow to its foreign trade sector despite rising trade tensions with the United States.

That bodes well for the world’s second-largest economy, analysts say.

“Trade performance in the second quarter so far has been better than expected and may offer some upside to the second-quarter GDP growth,” said Betty Wang, senior China economist at ANZ.

The median forecast from a recent survey of 32 analysts had pointed to 10-percent export growth in May, but the actual outturn showed little loss of momentum, coming in just a shade below the 12.7-percent growth posted in April.

Imports grew 26 percent in May, the General Administration of Customs said, beating analysts’ forecast of 18.7-percent growth, and compared with a 21.5-percent rebound in April.

Strong growth in imports were driven by purchases of computer chips as well as commodities including agricultural crude oil, copper ore and concentrate and natural gas.

Among major trading partners, China’s imports from Australia saw biggest turnaround in growth in May, rising 22.4 percent year on year after falling 3.1 percent in April. Imports from South Korea rose 31.8 percent in May.

China’s imports and exports both showed stronger growth over the first five months of the year than they did during the same period a year ago, customs data shows.

China’ trade surplus narrowed to US$24.92 billion in May from US$28.38 billion in April, and came in well below analysts forecasts for a US$31.9 billion surplus.

China’s exports to the United States rose 11.6 percent in May from a year earlier, compared with a 9.7-percent rise in April. Its imports from the United States rose 11.4 percent in May, far slower than the 20.3-percent growth shown in April.

That widened China’s surplus with the United States to US$24.58 billion in May from US$22.15 billion in April, according to media calculations based on customs data released Friday.(SD-Agencies)