That compares with a drop of 2.21 trillion yuan for the whole of past year and is similar to the US$107.9 billion (S$155 billion) slide in the nation’s foreign exchange reserves that was previously reported for December.
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But after this gloomy year, statistics for December, however, showed some signs of recovery, including a rebound of 2.3% year over year in exports, to 1,430 billion yuan ($ 217 billion).
But a 1.4% decline in December exports, following a 6.8% drop in November, was better than a median forecast for an 8.0% decrease by 15 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
After a fragile morning the country’s stock markets finished strongly though they remain sharply down for the year and just a few percentage points above their lowest ebb during last summer’s crash a level some say Beijing would pull out the stops to defend.
While commodity prices continue to fall, RBS economist Sanjay Mathur said the trade data showed a pick-up in volumes towards the end of 2015. The bank estimates demand grew by 5 per cent for the year, although it expects growth to moderate to 3 per cent in 2016.
In US dollar terms both imports and exports fell in December, but the fall was smaller than November’s.
Last year, trade with the United States, the second-biggest trade partner, rose to 3.47 trillion yuan in 2015 from 3.41 trillion yuan the previous year.
“China actually outperformed the rest of the world in exports, with its share in global exports rising”, Bloomberg cited Larry Hu, head of China Economics at Macquarie Securities in Hong Kong, as saying in a report ahead of the data.
Sydney, where several firms with strong trade links with China are listed, jumped 1.2 percent having ended in the red every session so far this year.
Asian shares made their first real rally of the year on Wednesday after Chinese data trade data beat expectations, offering a rare shaft of light for the global economy.
The increases were not made without cost, though.
Likewise, low-risk sovereign debt had to surrender a little of their recent gains and yields on 10-year paper nudged up 3 basis points 2.137 percent.
Huang also highlighted the structural optimization of exports. It plunged 9.23 percent over the week.
In contrast, exports of seven traditional labor-intensive products including clothing and shoes fell 1.7 percent to 2.93 trillion yuan, accounting for 20.7 percent of the total exports in 2015.
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USA oil futures rose for the first time in eight days with West Texas Intermediate crude up 30 cents to $30.74 a barrel.
