China’s Sept exports grow 5.7%, imports weak

BEIJING  – China’s exports grew 5.7 percent in September from a year earlier, beating expectations, while imports rose 0.3 percent, missing estimates, customs data showed on Monday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected export growth to cool to 4.1 percent after a 7.1 percent gain in August, as global demand continued to weaken amid surging prices and aggressive interest rate rises.

Imports had been forecast to have risen 1 percent, after ticking up only 0.3 percent in August, with domestic demand still sluggish.

China posted a trade surplus of $84.74 billion in September, versus a forecast for an $81.0 billion surplus in the poll and a $79.39 billion surplus in August.

In the meantime, its industrial output in September rose 6.3 percent from a year earlier, better than 4.2 percent growth in August, official data showed on Monday, pointing to a sustained recovery from COVID-19 curbs that disrupted business and factory activity.

The figure beat expectations for a 4.5 percent gain in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Retail sales rose 2.5 percent, worse than analysts’ expectations for 3.3 percent rise and 5.4 percent growth in August.

Fixed asset investment expanded 5.9 percent in the first nine months of the year from the same period a year earlier, versus a 6 percent rise expected by analysts and growth of 5.8 percent in January-August.

The data showed some improvement in the nascent recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, which has been hit by pandemic curbs and hobbled by a deep property slump, protracted COVID curbs and softening demand at home and abroad.