China’s November Exports Exceed Expectations
China’s elevated November exports have been widely reported (see for instance these web articles from Bloomberg and The New York Times).
The final figures showed an increase 12.7% in comparison to the projected figure of 7.1%. Of particular interest however are the destinations of the exports. It appears that the uplift can be substantially accounted for by shipments to the US and Europe; another indicator that several of the world’s largest economies are on the mend.
Whilst the increase also appears to be good news for China, it has been suggested that it can be partially attributed to over-invoicing i.e. concealing capital inflow as trade invoices in order to avoid state controls.
Whether or not this is the case, it will be interesting to see whether China can sustain similarly high levels of exports and maintain the grow rate of 7.2% which Premier Li Keqiang says is needed to guarantee stable employment in the country.