China trade sucks in dirt like the good ‘ol days

Advertisement

Chinese trade numbers for February were out late yesterday and were evidence of last year’s spectacular series of policy errors. Exports dropped -1.3% year on year while imports launched 38%:

wergw

The trade surplus collapsed to a deficit of -$9.15bn. The marvelous Chines technocrat in action!

The huge swing was primarily the result of rocketing commodity imports. Iron ore imports were 83.5mt, up 13% year on year and coal was 17.68mt up 49%:

Advertisement
dgjh

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:
Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe
About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.