China’s Dec exports rise 2.3%, imports up 0.2%

BEIJING – China’s exports rose 2.3 percent in December from a year earlier, while imports increased 0.2 percent, customs data showed on Friday.

A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a 1.7-percent increase in exports, after outbound shipments grew 0.5 percent in November, and that imports would expand by 0.3 percent, after dropping 0.6 percent a month prior. `

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The improved Chinese export data joins those from South Korea, Germany and Taiwan in suggesting global trade is starting to recover, after higher interest rates in the United States and Europe crimped demand and led the United Nations to warn that goods trade likely contracted by $2 trillion or 8 percent in 2023.