China's exports unexpectedly rose in December, while a slump in imports moderated, suggesting a weakening currency may be starting to boost competitiveness in the world’s biggest-trading nation.
Data from the General Administration of Customs, showed on Wednesday that China's exports rose 2.3 percent, from a year earlier in December, while imports dropped 4 percent. That left a trade surplus of 382 billion yuan for the month. For the whole year of 2015, however, China's exports fell 1.8 percent year on year, while imports tumbled 13.2 percent. And the trade surplus stood at 3.69 trillion yuan. The administration said the falling bulk commodity price, and decreasing global demand had contributed to the fall, in both exports and imports last year.
"There are several factors that led to the fall in both exports and imports in 2015. The main reason for the decline is that exports were in low global demand. The global financial crisis after 2008 has hurt the global economic driver, and international finance entered an adjustment stage, which limited the growth of China's exports. China's exports of mechanical and electrical products only rose 1.2 percent in 2015, 1.4 percentage points lower than the previous year. Meanwhile exports of labor-intense products dropped 1.7 percent, which was rare in recent years. The slumping prices of major bulk commodity products also showed a slow economic recovery and low demand. As China's economy entered the New Normal, its domestic economy faces relatively big downward stress, and imports of some bulk commodities were growing at a slower rate. Therefore, the falling bulk commodity price and slower growth of bulk commodity imports were the major reasons for the fall in China's imports in 2015," Huang Songping, spokesman of General Administration of Customs, said.
