Economists surprised by strong China trade data for November

China's foreign trade was surprisingly strong in November according to economists, amid export growth at two-year highs and import demand that slowed by much less than had been expected.

According to the country's Customs and Administration, in local currency terms the rate of growth of exports picked up from a 6.1% pace year-on-year in October to 10.3% for November (consensus: 2.0%).

Import growth also outpaced forecasts, rising by 15.6% year-on-year. That was less than October's reading of 15.9% but much better than the 12.5% pace that had been projected by economists.

The import figures were especially important because they might reflect stronger underlying economic conditions in the Asian giant, with concerns around those one of the most salient bugbears for financial markets of late.

Nonetheless, Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics cautioned that the economy might not be as strong as Friday's import data appeared to suggest.

Furthermore, the local economy still looked on course to weaken as investment growth slowed and due to the property market downturn, he said.

Evans-Pritchard also indicated he was a bit puzzled by the strong data, because "unflattering" base-effects had been expected to weigh on headline rates of growth in trade.

In seasonally adjusted terms, Capital Economics estimated that Chinese export volumes grew by 6.9% on the month - their strongest pace in two years - after a 1.5% drop in October.

Meanwhile, imports were 5.2% higher after a 0.3% dip in October.

Significantly, import volumes of major industrial commodities also shot higher, with growth accelerating from 0.9% year-on-year to 6.1%.

However, according to Evans-Pritchard it was not clear to what extent the bounce back in demand was linked to recent disruptions in domestic supplies of those same commodities as mines and factories are forced to shutter by Beijing's anti-pollution drive.