Exports beat forecasts amid US trade war

China's exports surged by 8.1% in April, reaching USD 315.69 billion — far exceeding market expectations of just a 1.9% increase.

Transcript

00:00Right, this is the newly released China's trade statistics for April.

00:05China's export showed unexpected strength in April, growing by 8.1% year-on-year to $315.69 billion.

00:15Now, this beats the market expectation of just a 1.9% increase and is followed by the 12.4% rise in March

00:24when exporters rushed shipments before the US imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods.

00:31Now, imports, meanwhile, dipped by 0.2% year-on-year, a far smaller decline than the 5.9% drop forecasted

00:40and better than March's contraction of 4.3%.

00:45Now, let's break down some of China's exports to some of its major trading partners.

00:51Now, trade data shows a rise in shipments to Southeast Asia and Europe, offsetting the drop to America.

00:58Now, if we look at the American exports here, it plunged by 21%, a sharp reversal from a 9.09% increase in March,

01:08while imports dropped nearly 14%.

01:11Now, the ASEAN region, China's largest trading partner by block and a key transshipment hub,

01:17exports surged 20.8%.

01:20Now, if you compare that to the United States, quite the opposite,

01:23accelerating from an 11.6% rise in March, while imports from the block increased 2.5%.

01:30Meanwhile, China's exports to the EU rose 8.3%, while imports fell 16.5% year-on-year.

01:37Now, China's trade surplus for April stood at $96.18 billion, lower than March, $102.64 billion here,

01:47but significantly higher than the $72.35 billion recorded a year ago.

01:53Now, this figure suggests that the US-China trade war, marked by steep tariffs,

01:57has so far had a limited impact on China's overall export volume,

02:00but the smaller trade surplus hints at growing pressure on exporters,

02:04who may be absorbing tariff costs or selling at discounts to maintain sales.

02:09Now, on the import front, the milder-than-expected slowdown points to some resilience in Chinese domestic demand,

02:16even as Beijing maintained a 125% tariff on US imports in retaliation for Washington's 145% levy.

02:24With Beijing targeting around 5% GDP growth this year,

02:27the government has been rolling out measures to support consumption and aid exporters.

02:31And this weekend, Chinese India's officials are set to meet in Switzerland,

02:34aiming to ease trade tensions,

02:36with President Donald Trump actually just recently teasing that lowering Chinese tariff to 80% seems right.

02:43There you have it.

02:44China's April trade data will unpack these numbers more after this break.