China’s Trade Surplus Widens to Record $29.3 Billion
China’s trade surplus widened to a record in September as exports withstood the global economic slowdown and falling commodity prices reduced the import bill.
Exports rose 21.5 percent from a year earlier to $136.4 billion after gaining 21.1 percent in August, the customs bureau said on its Web site. The trade surplus climbed to $29.3 billion, a figure derived by deducting the value of imports from the number for exports.
China has stimulated the world’s fourth-biggest economy by cutting interest rates twice in a month to counter the financial crisis. The surplus swelled a record $1.8 trillion of foreign- currency reserves that may help the nation to maintain growth of more than 9 percent as a global recession looms.
“It’s not a bad thing to have a relatively large trade surplus when there’s a global financial crisis,” said Wang Qian, an economist at J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong. “China’s foreign- currency holdings will help the country to survive the crisis.”
The median forecasts in a survey of 13 economists were for export growth of 20 percent and a trade surplus of $24.5 billion. The previous record was $28.7 billion in August.
Imports increased 21.3 percent to $107.1 billion after climbing 23.1 percent in the previous month. Falling prices for commodities such as copper and oil have trimmed the value of inward shipments.
Weakening Growth
Export growth is down from 25.7 percent for all of 2007.
“Although the numbers look like China’s exports are holding up, the volume growth of exports has slowed to below 10 percent,” Wang said. “Export growth will continue to weaken as the economic slowdown spreads from developed economies to emerging markets.”
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