China export growth slows in November: customs data

China’s export growth slowed last month weighed down by slowing global demand and trade tensions with the United States, official data released Saturday showed.

Exports rose 5.4 percent for November on-year, short of the 9.4 percent forecast by Bloomberg News, while imports rose 3.0 percent on-year, also below the forecast, according to customs administration data.

China’s overall trade — what it buys and sells with all countries — logged a $44.7 billion surplus in November, up from $35 billion the previous month, the data showed.

The sagging export and import growth is another bad sign for China’s economy, which grew at its slowest pace for nine years in the third quarter, expanding 6.5 percent on-year for July-September.

China’s trade surplus with the US has reached records highs this autumn as China has cut back imports from the US while American importers have rushed goods across the Pacific to beat the higher tariffs most expected in January.

Last week as part of a trade war truce, US President Donald Trump agreed to hold off on plans to raise tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25 percent beginning January 1, leaving them at the current 10 percent rate.

But unease over the agreement has dented stocks this week with major US indices falling more than two percent to close the market’s worst week since March and one that left both the Dow and S&P 500 in negative territory for the year.

China reacted furiously after a top executive and daughter of the founder of Chinese telecom giant Huawei was arrested in Canada this week following a US extradition request.

The arrest threatens to rattle the trade war truce with the United States, analysts say.

Confusion over what was achieved at the Trump-Xi meeting has already contributed to the unease.

The White House has said China agreed to purchase a “very substantial” amount of agricultural, energy, industrial and other products and would begin buying products from US farmers “immediately”.

Trump added China would roll back tariffs of 40 percent on US made cars.

So far Beijing has not confirmed any of those moves.

The trade tensions come at a tough time for Beijing, which is battling to tackle a mountain of debt as credit tightens and infrastructure investment falls.

While exports to the US have held up so far this autumn, the row has sapped confidence in China.

The Shanghai composite stock index has fallen by about one-quarter from its January high, while the yuan has slipped about nine percent against the dollar.