China's Trade Remains Solid Despite Slowing Import Exports

China's import exports grew more slowly than the previous period, but recorded a growing trade surplus.

On Monday (07/March), China's National Bureau of Statistics released export data which increased by 16.3 percent on an annual basis (Year-over-Year) during January-February 2022. This data did grow slower than the previous period (20.9 percent), but better than expectations of an increase of 15 percent. By volume, China's export value reached $544.7 billion. This time, China's trade data is deliberately summarized for two months (January-February) in connection with the 2022 Chinese New Year holiday which falls in late January to early February.

Meanwhile, China's imports increased 15.5 percent on an annual basis in the same period. This figure has fallen quite far from the December 2021 achievement, and is lower than the expected gain of 16.5 percent. By volume, China's import value reached $428.75 billion.

Referring to the Chinese export-import data above, China's trade as a whole still posted a total surplus of $115.95 billion, bigger than the expected surplus of $99.5 billion, and a sharp increase from achieving a surplus in December 2021 which only reached $94.46 billion.

This shows that China's economy is still quite resilient in the midst of various dynamics such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict which has driven up sharp increases in energy commodity prices.

China's economy was indeed quite solid at the beginning of 2022, it's just that its growth has continued to decline compared to the beginning of 2021. This slowdown has started to be felt since the second half of last year. The Chinese government itself has projected economic growth of around 5.5 percent this year, amid uncertainties surrounding the global economy and a broad decline in the property sector in the country.

"The Chinese government will enhance policy coordination and speed up the rollout of policies that are favorable to the economy," Lian Weiliang, deputy head of China's National Development and Reform Commission told a news conference.