China April exports suddenly dive, although imports rebound

In April, China's exports suddenly headed south, although imports shocked with their first rally for five months, providing rather a mixed picture of the Chinese economy because the US government ramped up pressure on China with threats of more punishing levies.

The latest trade data that would normally be pored over for prompts on how the world's number two economy is getting on, has been overshadowed by fears that the US-China trade conflict is escalating, rather than approaching a resolution as many market participants had hoped for.

High-level Chinese as well as American negotiators are going to meet in the US capital in the next two days, as the Chinese cabinet is eager to dodge a steep rally in levies on its goods ordered by US leader to come into effect from Friday.

Market participants have been expecting China's April trade data to contribute to indications that the Chinese economy is starting to stabilize, thus soothing fears about decelerating global surge.

However, Chinese exports headed south by 2.7% from 2018, as customs data revealed on Wednesday.

According to ANZ estimate, over 80% of the headline tumble occurred because of a steep tumble in shipments to America, while its high-tech exports were still suppressed by sluggish global demand for smartphones as well as other electronic gadgets.

Market experts had hoped surge would decrease to 2.3% following March's surprising 14.2% rally that some experts suspected was driven by seasonal factors as well as temporary business distortions having to do with a cut in the value-added tax effective on April 1.

Nevertheless, imports managed to beat expectations, soaring by 4% year-on-year, surpassing experts’ estimates for a 3.6% decrease as well as March's 7.6% tumble.