(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) China's imports rose the most in five months in December, indicating that domestic demand will support economic growth, as the government claimed the title of the world's biggest trader of goods
Inbound shipments advanced 8.3 per cent from a year earlier, the customs administration said on Friday in Beijing. Exports rose 4.3 per cent, a pace that may be distorted by fake invoices. The trade surplus was $25.6 billion
Improving demand will help support expansion amid risks from rising domestic debt and the impact of President Xi Jinping's broadest policy reforms since the 1990s. While China said on Friday it passed the US to become the top trading nation in 2013, the government highlighted challenges for exporters including gains in the yuan and increased labor costs
"Domestic demand is not as soft as had been feared, and the Chinese economy - while decelerating - is unlikely to see a sharp slowdown," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong
At the same time, on Friday's figures "should be interpreted cautiously as they look much different after seasonal adjustment," Kowalczyk said. On that basis, imports rose 4.3 per cent from a year earlier and exports gained 3.3 per cent, customs data show
The full-year trade surplus was $259.75 billion, Friday's data showed. That's the widest since 2008 and the third-biggest on record, based on previously released data. Some analysts have said the surplus was inflated earlier in the year, with Bank of America Corp.'s Lu Ting pegging the discrepancy at more than $50 billion for the January-April period
The customs administration has no plans to revise 2013 trade data, Zheng Yuesheng, a spokesman, said on Friday at a Press briefing. For the full year, exports increased 7.9 per cent to $2.21 trillion and imports rose 7.3 per cent to $1.95 trillion, the customs administration said. Exceeding annual trade of $4 trillion was a "historic moment," Zheng said
Fake invoices inflated 2013 export gains by about two per centage points, Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group, said in a note on Friday. US trade totalled $3.53 trillion through November 2013, according to US government figures. US December trade figures, which haven't been released yet, would need to be more than double a year earlier to catch China's full-year total
China already ranked No. 1 in goods exports in 2012 and was the second-biggest importer behind the US, according to the World Trade Organisation's annual report on international trade statistics. With $2.08 trillion in inbound shipments through November, the US was poised to remain the world's biggest importer in 2013
China was fifth in exports of commercial services in 2012, behind the US, UK, Germany and France, the WTO said. China was No. 3 in imports of services, behind the US and Germany. In economic size, China remains second to the US, with gross domestic product of about $8.2 trillion last year, about half that of the US
Even with adjustments for previously inflated data, export growth won't significantly quicken, because a stronger yuan will put pressure on China's exporters and emerging markets that buy the nation's goods could be hurt by the US's tapering of monetary stimulus, Hong Kong-based Lu of Bank of America said in a note on Friday
Analysts' estimates for import gains in December ranged from 1.8 per cent to nine per cent, with a median of five per cent, following November's increase of 5.3 per cent. Exports were projected to rise five per cent, and the trade surplus was forecast at $32.15 billion, based on median estimates of economists. The trade excess in November was $33.8 billion, the largest in more than four years
China's automakers exported 4.8 per cent fewer vehicles in December compared with a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Thursday in Beijing. Full-year shipments dropped 7.5 per cent, the first decline in five years, due to unstable overseas demand and insufficient competitiveness, the association said
Data on Friday showed imports of soybeans and natural rubber rose to a record last month, while full-year 2013 iron ore imports increased to a record
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