China trade: India coronavirus crisis, recovering US economy boosted figures, but ‘cyclical peak’ looms

China’s exports grew by 32.3 per cent in April compared with a year earlier, while imports grew by 43.1 per cent last month

China’s imports from the US rose by 51.65 per cent to US$13.94 billion in April, while exports rose by 31.16 per cent to US$42.05 billion

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China’s exports grew by 32.2 per cent in April compared to a year earlier, while imports grew by 43.1 per cent last month. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:09am, 7 May 2021Updated: 4:11pm, 7 May 2021

A recovering US economy and the coronavirus crisis in India helped boost China’s trade data in April, but volumes are “probably close to a cyclical peak”, analysts said.

China’s exports grew by 32.3 per cent last month from a year earlier to US$263.93 billion, up from the 30.6 per cent growth seen in March, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed. This was above the median result of a survey of analysts conducted by Bloomberg, which predicted 24.5 per cent growth.

This was the 10th consecutive period of export growth, although the fact that exports grew by just 3.5 per cent in April last year due to the impact of the coronavirus is a factor in the size of the increase this year.

Imports grew by 43.1 per cent in April from a year earlier to US$221.07 billion, up from the 38.1 per cent growth in March, and just below the Bloomberg survey, which predicted 44.4 per cent growth.

This was the seventh consecutive period of import growth but, again, the import drop of 14.2 per cent in April last year means the latest figures started from a low base.

China’s total trade surplus stood at US$42.85 billion in April, compared with US$13.8 billion in March.

“China’s export growth again surprised on the upside. Two factors likely contributed to the strong export growth. First, the US economy is booming, boosting global demand. Secondly, the Covid crisis in India caused delays in production, therefore some orders were shifted to China,” said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.