Status: 13.07.2021 10:29 a.m.
The exports of the world’s second largest economy rose surprisingly strongly in June. The fact that China’s economy has largely left the pandemic behind is helping the global economy as well as German companies.
Exports from China increased by almost a third last month compared to June 2020. According to statistics from the Chinese customs authorities, exports of the second largest economy rose year-on-year by 32.2 percent to around 281 billion dollars. After a growth rate of 28 percent in May, the increase in exports accelerated again and thus clearly exceeded the expectations of experts.
The People’s Republic also imported significantly more than in the same period of the previous year. The German export-oriented corporations also benefited from this. China’s imports even increased by 36.7 percent to around $ 230 billion. The increase in imports was thus lower than in May, when an increase of 51 percent was reported. A spokesman for the Chinese customs authorities, Li Kuiwen, said there are still “unstable and uncertain factors” in international trade.
Restrictive crisis policy pays off
China’s rapid economic recovery is related to a restrictive strategy in the corona crisis. The government in Beijing is officially pursuing a “zero covid strategy”, which includes curfews, mass tests, contact tracing, quarantine and strict entry restrictions. The official numbers of new infections are so low that the calculated 7-day incidence is 0.0. Building on this, the economy is largely back to normal, which is now particularly evident in foreign trade, while Chinese consumer spending is currently growing even more slowly.
Chinese exports to the USA rose by 17.8 percent to 46.9 billion dollars, imports from the USA rose 37.6 percent to 14.3 billion dollars compared to the previous year. Chinese exports to the EU grew by 27 percent to 43.1 billion dollars (36.3 billion euros). Imports from Germany, France and other European countries climbed 34.1 percent to $ 27.7 billion.
Important sales market for the German economy
German companies also continued to benefit from the high demand from the People’s Republic in June. China has long been the most important sales market in the world for car companies and companies in the mechanical engineering sector. According to the Beijing customs authorities, German exports to China rose by 28.6 percent year-on-year. China’s exports to Germany increased by 26.9 percent.
According to current forecasts by the EU Commission, the EU can expect gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 4.8 this year. EU Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni had only raised the forecast last week. He expects a “strong comeback” of the community after the Corona crisis. In addition to growing foreign trade with China, strong private consumption within the EU also plays an important role.
Foreign trade should “normalize”
For China, after the rapid increase in recent months, the Chinese customs authorities are expecting growth in foreign trade to “normalize” in the second half of the year. There are also uncertainties as to how the pandemic will develop around the world. Over the year as a whole, however, the authority continues to expect strong growth in trade. This means that the EU and Germany will also retain their tailwind.