China’s export for September picked up by 15.3% year-on-year to reach US$213.7 billion, beating market estimate, according to data released by China’s General Administration of Customs.
Import increased by 7.0% to US$182.7 billion in September, the first positive growth for this year’s third quarter.
This led to another significant trade surplus of US$31 billion, the fifth consecutive months with trade surplus since May.
"Overall, the ongoing declines in ordinary imports, shipments from commodity producers and imports of some raw materials and commodities all pointed to still soft domestic demand," writes UBS economist Wang Tao in a research report.
While the stronger-than-expected imports appear to be somewhat inconsistent with sluggish domestic demand, it suggests that commodity traders could have taken advantage of the low commodity prices in the past month, says another research report by ANZ.
