CHINA’S exports rose 1.4 percent year on year in yuan terms in May while imports fell 12.7 percent, official data showed yesterday. Foreign trade of goods decreased 4.9 percent year on year in the first five months to 11.54 trillion yuan (US$1.63 trillion), the General Administration of Customs said. In U.S. dollar terms, overseas shipments in May fell 3.3 percent from a year earlier, after a surprising 3.5 percent gain in April, customs data showed. That compared with a 7 percent drop forecast in a recent poll. While exports fared slightly better than expected, imports tumbled 16.7 percent compared with a year earlier, worsening from a 14.2 percent decline the previous month and marking the sharpest decline since January 2016. It had been expected to fall 9.7 percent in May. As a result, China posted a record trade surplus of US$62.93 billion last month, the highest since 1981, compared with the poll’s forecast for a US$39 billion surplus and US$45.34 billion surplus in April. China’s trade surplus with the United States widened to US$27.89 billion in May, media calculation based on customs data showed. Both official and private factory surveys for May showed sub-indexes for export orders remained deep in contraction. Profits at China’s industrial firms fell almost 30 percent in the January-April period. Many Chinese exporters, stuck with unsold stock and cancelled orders from abroad, are cutting staff and moving into e-commerce to target the domestic market. One bright spot has been exports of medical supplies, of which China has dominated the supply chain. In the first half of May, China shipped 63.2 billion yuan of medical supplies, media calculations from customs data showed, compared with 71.2 billion yuan in the March-April period. The export of textile products including masks jumped 25.5 percent in yuan terms in the first five months, the second largest export item after mechanical products, according to the customs. China’s economy continued its slow recovery from the coronavirus slump in May, the earliest indicators showed, with domestic demand gaining momentum while global demand remained sluggish. “The exports of medical supplies provided continued supports,” said Goldman Sachs economists led by Song Yu. “High-frequency data on container throughput show a much stronger picture for May.” (SD-Agencies) |