China’s trade surplus up 56.7 percent in 2015

Last year, the country’s total export and import values decreased 7 percent year on year to 24.59 trillion yuan.

For the year, exports fell 1.8%, while imports tumbled 13.2% from 2014.

“China actually outperformed the rest of the world in exports, with its share in global exports rising”, it cited Larry Hu, head of China Economics at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong, as saying in a report ahead of the data. The European, United States and the Association of South-East Asian Nations are China’s top three trading partners.

BEIJING-China’s exports measured in dollar terms fell for the sixth straight month in December compared with a year earlier, official data showed Wednesday, underscoring the headwinds faced by the world’s second-largest economy.

December’s figures offered a rare bright spot for the economy.

“The decline in coal import volumes has two main causes – the decline in overall demand caused by China’s economic slowdown, and the fall in domestic prices which has undermined the price advantage enjoyed by imported coal”, said Zhang Xiaojin, a coal analyst with China’s Everbright Securities.

Lau said the devaluation of the Chinese yuan could help spur exports, but they were unlikely to exceed 5 million tonnes for the whole of 2016, given weak global demand. Full year growth is expected to come in at or just below 7 per cent.

China’s trade surplus also beat expectations at 382 billion yuan, compared to the 338 billion yuan forecast.