China exports, imports remain robust in July but growth slows
Beijing, Aug 7 (EFE).- China’s trade with the rest of the world grew by 11.5 percent year-on-year in July, official data published on Saturday showed.
However, the customs data indicated that the growth rate from a year earlier has slowed down.
Yuan-denominated exports grew 8.1 percent last month to 1.82 trillion yuan ($281.6 billion), and imports increased 16.1 percent to 1.45 trillion yuan ($224.4 billion).
The trade surplus in July remained around 370,000 million yuan ($57.2 billion).
It represented a growth of more than 2 percent as compared to the same month in 2020.
Compared to the previous month, the total volume of trade in July fell by 0.8 percent and imports by 1.9 percent.
If China’s foreign trade denominated in dollars is considered, it grew in July by 23 percent compared to July 2020 to $508.74 billion.
Exports in dollars advanced 19.3 percent to $282.6 billion.
Imports denominated in dollars grew at a faster rate of 28.1 percent and reached a value of $226 billion.
The trade surplus denominated in dollars fell 6.3 percent compared to July 2020 to 56.5 billion.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post attributed the slowdown in the growth to the fading away of the favorable comparison base effect from a year earlier when the world economy was battered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the slowdown, Chinese trade has been growing for 14 consecutive months, customs director Li Kuiwen said.
By trade volume, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union, the United States, and Japan remained the main trading partners of China in July.
The trade surplus with the United States rose to $35.43 billion from $32.58 billion in June amid a dispute between Beijing and Washington lingering on since 2018.
Imports from the US grew by 25.63 percent to U$14.16 billion in July, while exports rose 13.4 percent to $49.59 billion. EFE
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