China trade surplus hits six-month high in January

Asia's largest economy recorded a foreign trade surplus of $51.4bn, a six-month high, with both exports and imports easily surpassing economists' forecasts for the month of January.

Economists had projected a trade surplus of $47.9bn.

Chinese exports jumped 7.9% year-on-year (consensus: 3.2%), as imports rose by 16.7% (consensus: 10.0%).

"Stepping back, the big picture is that Chinese trade values have been picking up in recent months thanks to a revival in global manufacturing, the continued strength of China’s domestic economy and the rebound in global commodity prices. We expect this improvement to be sustained in the short-run, even as Chinese New Year distortions mean that headline trade growth is likely to fall back sharply in February," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics.

Nonetheless, Evans-Pritchard admitted that seasonal factors also played a hand; namely, all of the pre-holiday rush to import goods and meet export orders took place in January this year, making it "challenging" to discern the underlying trends, he said.