China’s Trade Balance: Surplus widens in August as exports outperform

China's Trade Balance for August, in Chinese Yuan terms, came in at CNY649.34 billion, expanding from the previous figure of CNY601.98 billion.

Exports rose 8.4% YoY in August vs. 6.5% seen in July. The country’s imports came in at 0% YoY in the same period vs. 6.6% registered previously.

In US Dollar terms, China’s trade surplus widened in August.

Trade Balance came in at +91.02B versus +83.9B expected and +84.65B previous.

Exports (YoY): 8.7% vs. 6.5% expected and 7.0% previous.

Imports (YoY): 0.5% vs. 2.0% expected and 7.2% last.

Additional takeaways

China Jan-August USD-denominated Exports +4.6% YoY.

China Jan-August USD-denominated Imports +2.5% YoY.

China Jan-August USD-denominated Trade Surplus +608.9B.

China Jan-August Trade Surplus with the US arrived at +$224.57B.

China August Trade Surplus with the US was $33.81B vs. $30.84B in July.

FX implications

AUD/USD holds the rebound above 0.6650 after China’s trade surplus expansion. The pair is down 0.05% on the day, trading at 0.6658, at the time of writing.