China delays release of Jan trade data to combine with February

General Administration of Customs People’s Republic of China (GACC) revealed in a short interview that it will not release preliminary trade data for January, which was supposed to be out on February 7. The GACC will combine January data with February figures, instead.

With this decision, the GACC intends to align its publishing schedule to National Bureau of Statistics, which is another major provider of economic data such as industrial output, investment and retail sales.

Furthermore, it is claimed that this delay was also partially attributed to the heavy distortion of the trade data amid extended Lunar New Year holidays and the negative effects of the spreading coronavirus.