However, due to the corona, there is a low comparison basis in January and February 2020.
After the difficult corona year, China is showing unusually strong growth. In the first two months of 2021, Chinese exports, calculated in US dollars, made a jump of 60.6 percent year-on-year, as the customs administration reported in Beijing on Sunday. The imports of the second largest economy also increased strongly by 22.2 percent. Foreign trade climbed 41.2 percent year-on-year and exceeded the expectations of experts.
Economists saw the low comparative basis at the beginning of the previous year as one of the reasons for the unusually strong growth, when China took strict control measures and closed factories after the outbreak of the coronavirus in the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in January and February 2020. Foreign trade has been developing strongly again since the second half of 2020 and is making a greater than expected contribution to the recovery of the Chinese economy.
Orders fulfilled earlier
Because of the fluctuations caused by the Chinese New Year celebrations, which always fall differently on January or February, China has summarized the data for the two months. This year, however, many companies also worked over the New Year holidays. The government had asked workers not to travel to their homeland as usual, fearing a new spread of the corona virus. In this way, many export orders could be fulfilled earlier.
With the growth, China's trade surplus with the world climbed unexpectedly sharply to USD 103 billion. Experts had actually expected a drop of $ 78 billion in December. Even without a low comparison base in the previous year, exports had already risen by 18.1 percent in December, while imports had increased by 6.5 percent. In terms of the year 2020, there was already a recovery: exports had increased by 3.6 percent for the year as a whole. Imports fell slightly by 1.1 percent.
Export boom supports upturn
The export boom is supporting the upturn more than experts had expected. After growth of 2.3 percent last year, China's economy is expected to grow by “more than six percent” this year, according to the goals set by Prime Minister Li Keqiang at the meeting of the People's Congress in Beijing on Friday. However, the goal is considered cautious. The Monetary Fund (IMF) even expects 8.1 percent growth in China in 2021.
In the past Corona year, China was the only major economy that recorded growth. China has largely got the virus under control with stringent measures such as curfews and mass tests for millions, as well as contact tracing, quarantine and exceptionally strict entry restrictions. As a result, everyday life and the economy have largely returned to normal since last summer.
“Zero Covid Strategy”
Since then, China has seen only a few localized outbreaks, which were immediately contained with strict control measures. The Chinese government is pursuing a “zero covid strategy”. For weeks, almost only imported infections have been registered, which could be immediately isolated for a period of two to three weeks for all immigrants due to the compulsory quarantine.
