(Bloomberg) --
China’s exports unexpectedly rose in April even as the coronavirus pandemic damaged global demand, while imports fell.
- Exports rose 3.5% in dollar terms in April from a year earlier, while imports dropped 14.2%, the customs administration said Thursday. That left a trade surplus of $45.3 billion for the month. Economists had forecast that exports would shrink by 11% while imports would contract by 10%.
Key Insights
- China’s exports usually start slowly in the first quarter due to the Lunar New Year and then rise from April. While there were some signs in March of a recovery from the domestic slump at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, restrictions in other parts of the world to contain the pandemic had been expected to weigh on export orders and disrupt supply chains.
- The earliest indicators for the economy showed the nascent rebound was already losing momentum in April.
- The surprise increase in exports wasn’t uniform across Asia - South Korea’s exports in April fell by over 24%, the biggest drop since the global financial crisis, with shipments to all destinations down sharply.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
