China Beats Expectations by Reports an Increase of 3.3% in Exports, Imports Drop 5.6%

On Thursday, August 8, 2019, China has surprised the market with a better-than-expected trade data in July amid the rising tension with the U.S.

The exports in July rose 3.3%, beating the expectation of 2.2% drop after a 1.3% fall in June. Imports also performed better than the expectations by reporting a drop of 5.6% from sluggish demand. Analysts had expected imports to fall by 8.3% in July. However, the number has shown that the economy remained weak.

The country’s overall trade surplus last month was $45.06 billion,compared with a $50.98 billion surplus in June. Analysts had forecast a surplus of $40 billion for July.

Analysts see that a weaker Chinese yuan over the U.S. dollar and other currencies has helped Chinese manufacturers to gain advantage from selling their products overseas.