Data from China Customs showed on Tuesday that exports rose 8.5% last month, from a year earlier, to $295.42 billion, compared with a 14.8% increase in March.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast growth of 8% in April.
Meanwhile, Chinese imports fell 7.9% year-on-year in April to $205.21 billion, registering a bigger drop than the 1.4% reached in March this year, and better than expected. down 5%.
China’s trade surplus rose to $90.2 billion in April from $88.19 billion in March.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected a trade surplus of $71.6 billion.
And last April, official data showed that China’s economy recorded higher-than-expected growth in the first quarter, rising 4.5% on an annual basis, supported by policymakers’ decision to boost economic growth. growth after the removal of strict restrictions to fight Covid-19 in December.
On a quarterly basis, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed gross domestic product grew 2.2% in the January-March period.
The data reflects the economy’s recovery from the disruption caused by the sudden removal of COVID-19 restrictions in December, supported by consumption, services and infrastructure.
The main driver of the notable reading was a rebound in retail sales, the main indicator of household consumption, which rose 10.6% year-on-year in March, the biggest increase since June 2021.
However, industrial production rose 3.9% last month, an improvement from January-February but below analysts’ expectations of 4.4%, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
