Chinese foreign trade surplus shrinks in March as imports jump

China's foreign trade balance shrank by more than expected after the Lunar New Year holidays as the rate of growth in imports more than doubled.

According to figures published by the Chinese Customs Administration, the country exported only $13.8bn more goods in March than it imported.

That was down from $37.9bn seen in February and far below the $52.0bn anticipated by the consensus.

The year-on-year rate of growth in exports thus slowed from 154.9% in February to 30.6% (consensus: 38.0%) for March.

Import growth meanwhile picked up from 17.3% to 38.1% (consensus: 24.4%).

"Zoom boom exports remained robust, with the EU as the overall bright spot, from that perspective, while exports to the U.S. and Asia were on the weaker side," said Freya Beamish, chief Asia economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"Imports continued to edge up m/m, even strong gains in the first two months of the year. Energy and metals imports shot up, but non-commodity imports fell 3.9% m/m, though that’s only a partial correction after the leaps in January and February."