China’s imports rise, exports fall in Dec

According to media reports, China’s imports climbed while exports fell significantly due to the weak demand in many markets.

Chinese imports in December climbed by 3.1% year over year, which was in line with the expectations but slower than an increase of 6.7% in November

Exports, however, posted a decrease of 6.1% in December after a small increase of 0.1% in November and beat the analysts’ expectations of a 3% drop. Overall in 2016, both exports and imports fell by 7.7% and 5.5% respectively.

China posted a trade surplus of $40.82 billion in December when compared to $44.61 billion in November. Overall in 2016, the trade surplus narrowed to $510 billion from $594.5 billion in 2015.

The reports revealed that the decline in exports were driven by the decrease in sales as a result of the increasing materials costs which pushed the prices up. The upward movement of prices were also reported to cause a decrease in orders and profits whereas the the jump in imports was attributed to the higher global commodity prices, which is estimated to moderate in the following months.