China’s imports increased 37%, exports 11%

Beijing. February 9. Silkroadnews - China reported a 36.9 percent jump in imports and a rise of 11.1 percent in exports — both in dollar terms — for the month of January. Both figures beat expectations, CNBC reported.
The survey of economists predicted that imports in January will grow by 9.8% compared to last year. They also expected the growth of exports to be 9.6%.
Next week China will have a long weekend on the celebration of the Lunar New Year, so the trade data may be somewhat distorted by seasonal factors, such as stockpiling.
Nevertheless, even taking into account the holiday season, the January data indicates a healthy domestic demand in 2018, Louis Kuijs, head of the Asian economy at Oxford Economics, said.
In December, exports rose 10.9% in dollar terms compared to the same period of last year, while imports grew 4.5%.
China’s trade surplus in January was $20.34 billion. Economists predicted a surplus of $54.1 billion.
The balance of trade with the U.S. in January was $21.895 billion, compared with $25.55 billion in December.
Kuijs said that a favorable external environment will continue to support China’s exports in 2018.