Russia is pulling up China’s trade
China's foreign trade is weak overall, but in September trade with Russia reached its highest value since February 2022. Full details
In September, trade between China and Russia reached $21.18 billion, the highest value since February 2022, when Moscow started the war with Ukraine.
A “SOLID” COOPERATION, SAYS BEIJING
Sanctioned by the West, Russia turned east and found in China both a market willing to buy oil, gas and cereals, and a supplier of goods no longer accessible elsewhere. Last month, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said economic and trade cooperation between Beijing and Moscow had deepened and become more "solid" under the "strategic leadership" of their respective presidents, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
HOW IS CHINA-RUSSIA TRADE GOING
Data from China's customs authority said last month Chinese exports to Russia grew 21 percent year-on-year, to $9.6 billion. By August 2023 they had grown by 16 percent compared to August 2022.
Imports from Russia, however, grew by 8 percent compared to September 2022, to 11.5 billion dollars.
HOW IS CHINA'S TOTAL TRADE GOING
Overall, however, Chinese exports fell by 6.2 percent on an annual basis in September, although an improvement compared to the sharper decline in August (-8.8 percent). Government support measures for the economy – the second largest in the world – appear to be producing some results, but China's problems have not disappeared, starting with the crisis in its vast real estate sector. To try to stimulate growth and reach the annual target of +5 percent, the government is considering issuing additional sovereign debt of 1 trillion yuan (about 137 billion dollars), which will be used to finance infrastructure projects.
In September, Chinese imports of goods fell by 6.3 percent, worse than forecast by analysts interviewed by Reuters (-6.0 percent) but better than August (-7.3 percent).
Last month China recorded a trade surplus of 77.7 billion: analysts had expected a value of 70 billion. The August surplus amounted to 68.3 billion.
As for raw materials, in September purchases of crude oil grew by almost 14 percent compared to the previous year, but copper imports decreased by 5.8 percent.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/commercio-cina-russia-settembre-2023/ on Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:04:01 +0000.