The trade surplus increased to CNY 382.05 billion from CNY 343.1 billion in November.
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Economists had forecast an eight-percent fall for exports in December. Imports extended a stretch of declines to 14 months, falling 4 per cent in yuan terms, compared with a 5.6 per cent drop a month earlier.
Beijing has lowered the value of its yuan currency in recent weeks and months, which should make Chinese exports more competitive on world markets, and Customs spokesman Huang Songping said it “should boost exports to some extent”.
Many analysts are now fearing that China may be heading for a recession. Angola spent previous year in the offices of multilateral lenders, and this month saw its kwanza currency fall the most since September 2001 after the central bank allowed it to devalue as the drop in oil prices cut the main source of government revenue and export earnings.
The numbers surprised the markets, where economists had forecasted a much weaker reading.
The global financial crisis after 2008 has hurt the global economic driver, and worldwide finance entered an adjustment stage, which limited the growth of China’s exports. “As exports rebounded strongly, the trade surplus widened more than expected”.
The better-than-expected trade figures for December also offered a welcome distraction from the big miss of the annual target, with year-on-year growth in the value of yuan-denominated exports turning positive for the first time since June.
“A return to growth for exports after five months of contraction is a reassuring sign, and further evidence that the economy is not teetering on the brink”, Bloomberg economist Tom Orlik said in a report to clients.
China’s trade data reflect weak global demand and a decline in domestic economic growth, but economists say retail spending and manufacturing might be improving. Iron ore imports were up 2.2 per cent at 953 million tonnes in 2015, China Customs also said.
The annual trade surplus jumped 56.7 percent to 3.69 trillion yuan.
The volume of Chinese exports to Russian Federation fell by 34.4 percent a year ago to $32.9 billion, the TASS news agency reported Wednesday, citing China’s customs department.
Still, such a level would be the slowest pace of expansion in a quarter of a century, and down from 7.3 per cent in 2014 as weak exports, industrial overcapacity and faltering investment drag.
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The National Bureau of Statistics will release 2015’s economic data next Tuesday.
