BEIJING
\nChina\u2019s towering annual trade surplus surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last month, data showed on Monday, as a sharp drop in shipments to the United States was offset by surging exports to other major markets.
\nPresident\u2019s Xi Jinping and Donald Trump reached a tentative truce to their fierce trade war when they met in late October, agreeing a pause to painful measures that included lofty tit-for-tat tariffs.
\nExports have served as a key economic lifeline for China as trade and relations with the United States and others have fluctuated in recent years.
\nThat has helped temper a prolonged debt crisis in the country\u2019s vast property sector and sluggish domestic spending, which have weighed on growth and are among the most pressing issues facing Beijing. Exports climbed 5.9% year-on-year in November, reversing the slight decline recorded in October, the General Administration of Customs said.
\nThe reading was also above a Bloomberg forecast of 4% growth. The jump came despite a continued downturn in shipments to the United States, which sank 28.6% to $33.8 billion in November, the data showed. \u201cWeakness in exports to the United States was more than offset by shipments to other markets,\u201d Zichun Huang of Capital Economics wrote in a note. \u201cExports are likely to remain resilient, thanks to trade rerouting and rising price competitiveness as deflation pushes down China\u2019s real effective exchange rate,\u201d Huang said.
\nThe surge in shipments last month added to the country\u2019s ballooning annual trade surplus for the first 11 months of the year, which the Customs data showed hit $1.08 trillion in November. \u201cChina\u2019s trade surplus this year has already surpassed last year\u2019s level, and we expect it to widen further next year,\u201d Huang wrote. But the imbalance has long been a sticking point for major Western trading partners. French President Emmanuel Macron threatened in remarks published Sunday to impose tariffs on China if Beijing fails to reduce its massive trade surplus with the European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China\u2019s towering annual trade surplus surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last month, data showed on Monday, as a sharp drop in shipments to the United States was offset by surging exports to other major markets. President\u2019s Xi Jinping and Donald Trump reached a tentative truce to their fierce trade war when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-518962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n