7 takeaways from China’s trade, inflation data in September

1. Export growth softens

The value of China’s exports grew by 2.4 per cent, year on year, to US$303.71 billion in September.

The figure was lower than the expected 6.18 per cent increase surveyed by Chinese financial data provider Wind and fell short of the 8.7 per cent rise recorded in August.

“Export growth slowed last month but remained resilient, with volumes still rising at a double-digit pace,” said Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics.

“We think shipments will stay strong in the near term, supported by gains in export competitiveness.”

Customs spokesman Lu Daliang said the reading had been affected by “short-term incidental factors”, such as typhoons in port cities, a higher base last year, and global shipping congestion.