China’s trade growth slows in both directions, but surplus with US balloons
Beijing — China’s import growth slowed faster than expected in April, as inbound shipments of commodities such as iron ore and copper weakened, while export growth more than halved, in line with a general cooling in demand for electronic gadgets. China’s April imports rose 11.9%, cooling from March’s 20.3% rise, official data showed on Monday, and missing analysts’ expectations for an 18% rise. Exports rose 8% from a year earlier, slowing from a 16.4% rise in the previous month and short of expectations of 10.4%. While the data show trade remained robust at the beginning of the second quarter, analysts say the spurt in China’s economic growth seen in the first three months of the year may be as good as it gets as policy makers seek to tighten speculative investment, especially in the property sector. "Looking ahead, we expect export growth to hold up well given the relatively bright outlook for the global economy this year," Capital Economics China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard s...
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