BEIJING--China's trade surplus with the U.S. and the rest of the world widened in October as the global recovery buoyed demand for made-in-China goods, helping export growth beat market expectations for a seventh straight month.
China's exports rose 11.4% from a year earlier in October--higher than the previous month's 9.9% increase and topping economists' projections for a 9.0% gain--according to data released Saturday by China's General Administration of Customs.
China's imports, meantime, rose by a more modest 4.7% in October from a year earlier, down from September's 13.2% increase and lower than the 8.3% increase expected by surveyed economists.
Taken together, the trade data meant China's trade surplus ballooned to $58.4 billion in October, from $37 billion the previous month, according to official data. Economists had expected China to record a $47.8 billion surplus.
China's outbound shipments have defied market expectations since April, as the nation's factories began coming back online. In recent months, overseas sales of pandemic-related medical gear and work-from-home computer products have remained surprisingly resilient, serving as twin pillars for China's export sector. That has helped the world's second-largest economy shrug off expectations for a tapering off of overseas sales as other exporting countries come back online.
Even as it has done so, Beijing's senior leaders have also come to regard the global environment as increasingly uncertain, pinched both by rising geopolitical tensions and a fresh wave of coronavirus cases, raising questions about the ability of external demand to continue driving its growth.
In a proposal unveiled last month for the country's next five-year plan, Chinese leaders pledged to boost consumption at home. The new strategy was also aimed at offsetting rising geopolitical competition with the West, economists say.
China's trade surplus with the U.S. widened slightly to $31.37 billion in October, from $30.75 billion in September.
China's exports to the U.S., its third-largest trading partner, rose 22.5% year-over-year in dollar terms in October, while shipments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union, China's No. 1 and No. 2 trading partners, rose 7% and fell 7% respectively from a year earlier.
In October, China's purchases from the U.S. rose 33% from a year earlier, accelerating from September's 24.8% year-over-year growth rate. Chinese officials have reaffirmed their pledge to implement the U.S.-China phase one trade deal signed in January, under which Beijing promised to boost purchases of American farm, energy and other products by $200 billion over two years from 2017 levels.
Grace Zhu and Bingyan Wang contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com
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November 09, 2020 at 04:05AM
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