QINGDAO, CHINA – MAY 06: Aerial view of illuminated Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal at dusk on May 6, 2023 in Qingdao, Shandong Province of China.
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China’s exports grew 8.5% in April in U.S. dollar terms, marking a second-straight month of growth, while imports fell 7.9% compared with a year ago.
Economists polled by Reuters estimated exports would rise 8% in April, while imports were forecast to remain unchanged. In March, imports declined 1.4% year-on-year while exports saw a surprise jump of 14.8%, government data showed.
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China’s trade surplus grew to $90.21 billion in April, up from the surplus of $88.2 billion in March.
Softer trade data in April is likely to reflect “residual seasonality” after this year’s Lunar New Year, economists at Goldman Sachs said in a Monday note.
Goldman Sachs economists expected to see “the dissipation of this seasonal bias to slow export growth in April,” they wrote in a note earlier this month previewing China’s trade data.
Recent economic data released from the world’s second-largest economy showed that China’s service sector remained a bright spot despite disappointing factory data.
The National Bureau of Statistics’ manufacturing purchasing manager’s index reading missed expectations and fell into contraction territory with a reading of 49.2 in April from March’s reading of 51.9.
“China is past the fastest stage of its reopening,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a separate Friday note. It reiterated its forecast for China’s economy to see full-year growth of 6% in 2023.
“Recent meetings with clients in the mainland suggest gradually fading pessimism on near-term growth, but some concern around deflationary pressures, though in our view this is not a major risk for 2023-24,” they wrote.
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This story originally appeared on CNBC
