Yahoo Finance China’s July Exports Unexpectedly Grow; Imports Falls Less Than Expected
Investing.com - China reported on Thursday in Asia that its exports in July unexpectedly rose.
U.S. dollar-denominated exports gained 3.3% from a year ago, custom data showed. That compares with an expected fall of 2.0%.
Imports during the month fell 5.6%, compared with a forecasted 8.3% decline.
The country’s trade surplus last month was $45.06 billion.
The data were closely watched as some traders believed China’s economic growth would be negatively impacted by the ongoing trade war with the U.S.
Tensions between the two sides intensified after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed additional tariffs on more Chinese goods last week, while the Treasury Department labelled Beijing a currency manipulator on Monday after the yuan broke through the psychologically important level of 7 yuan to the dollar.
The currency’s slump was “due to the effects of unilateralist and trade-protectionist measures and the expectations for tariffs against China,” the People’s Bank of China said in a statement.
“Softer external demand and punitive tariffs will continue to dampen export growth. Meanwhile, falling commodity prices, a high base last year, and falling intermediary demand may have dragged down import growth in July,” analysts from Citi Research wrote in a note last week that was cited by CNBC.
The Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component gained 0.9% and 0.8% respectively by 11:37 PM ET (03:37 GMT) following the release of the data.
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