Ostrum
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
Philippe Waechter's blog
  • Insights
  • About us
  • Expertise
  • Our people
  • Media

Philippe Waechter's blog
My french blog
  • News & Chronicles
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
  • About Philippe Waechter
  • News & Chronicles
  • Climate
  • France
  • Euro Area
  • United States
  • International
  • Politics & Society
  • Monetary Policy
  • Media
  • Decoding
Philippe Waechter's blog
Prévôté
Previous Next
  • 2 min

3 Graphs on Chinese Trade Surplus

  • 8 September 2015
  • Philippe Waechter
  • Business Cycle
  • World Trade
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

The Chinese external trade surplus is almost at its highest in August 2015. It is close to USD 60bn. Cumulated on twelve months, the surplus is at its highest ever. That’s what we see on the graph.
china-2015-august-comexComparing exports and imports’ profiles allows a better understanding of the trade surplus and of the impact China has on the world trade momentum.
The second graph shows the 3 month change in exports (at annual rate). It compares every year since 2004.
2015 has the lowest profile when compared to previous years. This is related to the low momentum seen in world trade and probably a lower of competitiveness for the Chinese manufacturing sector.
china-2015-august-export3mcThe third graph is related to imports. 2015 profile is lower than every other year. China imports less because its internal demand is less dynamic. This is a good explanation of the large surplus.
This has two consequences
China has a lower impact on emerging countries’ exports. Since Chinese membership to the World Trade Organization, it has played an important role in emerging countries growth. It’s no longer the case as Chinese imports follow a low trajectory.
There is also less imports as China exports less. Many Asian countries used to export directly to the USA. China has changed that and most of these countries now export first to China which transforms the product and then exports it to the USA. As world trade momentum is lower, there is less exports for China and then less imports in China. This has a negative impact for Asian countries which are now more dependent to China than they were in the past. (see the example of South Korea in annex)
china-2015-august-import3mcAnnex
sKorea-exports

Related Topics
  • Business Cycle
  • World Trade
Subscribe to the newsletter

All the news from Philippe Waechter’s blog in your mailbox


Loading

Le magazine d’experts d’Ostrum

ABOUT OSTRUM AM
  • About us
  • Media room
  • Our publications
  • Cookie Policy (EU)
FOLLOW ME ON
EXTERNAL LINKS
  • Economists
  • Think tank
  • Central banks
  • Blog roll
©Ostrum AM 2025
An affiliate of : Plan de travail 2

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}