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Container port in Shanghai (archive picture): enormous exports
Photo: ALY SONG / REUTERS
After the difficult Corona year, China is reporting unusually strong economic growth.
Exports of the People's Republic made in US dollars in the first two months of the year a jump of 60.6 percent compared to the previous year, as the customs administration in Beijing announced.
The imports of the second largest economy increased by 22.2 percent.
Foreign trade climbed 41.2 percent year-on-year and exceeded the expectations of experts.
The Chinese exporters benefit from the fact that they manufacture many goods that are in demand around the world during the pandemic - such as medical equipment such as masks or laptops and screens for working at home.
Economists saw the low comparison base at the beginning of the previous year, when China took strict control measures and closed factories in the metropolis of Wuhan after the outbreak of the coronavirus, as one of the reasons for the unusually strong growth.
However, foreign trade has been developing strongly again since the second half of 2020 and is making a greater than expected contribution to the recovery of the Chinese economy.
Exports to Europe increase by 62.6 percent
While Germany's business with other countries is bad during the corona crisis, the German economy is benefiting from the robust growth of its most important trading partner.
According to Chinese calculations in US dollars, German exporters were able to deliver almost a third more goods to China in the two months.
Chinese exports to Germany also rose by 71.2 percent.
Similarly, Chinese exports to Europe rose 62.6 percent, while imports rose 32.5 percent.
Because of the fluctuations caused by the Chinese New Year celebrations, which are in January or February, China is summarizing the data for the two months.
This year, however, many companies also worked over the New Year holidays.
The government had asked workers not to travel to their homeland as usual, fearing a new spread of the corona virus.
In this way, many export orders could be fulfilled earlier.
Due to the growth, China's trade surplus with the world rose unexpectedly sharply to 103 billion US dollars.
Experts had actually expected a drop of $ 78 billion in December.
Even without a low comparison basis in the previous year, exports in December had already risen by 18.1 percent, while imports had increased by 6.5 percent.
In terms of the year 2020, there was already a recovery: exports had increased by 3.6 percent for the year as a whole.
Imports fell slightly by 1.1 percent.
The export boom is supporting the upswing more than experts expected.
After growth of 2.3 percent last year, China's economy is expected to grow by more than six percent this year, according to the goals that Prime Minister Li Keqiang presented on Friday at the session of the People's Congress in Beijing.
However, the goal is considered cautious.
The Monetary Fund (IMF) is even anticipating 8.1 percent growth in China for the current year.
In the past Corona year, China was the only major economy that recorded growth.
The People's Republic has largely got the situation under control with strict measures such as curfews and mass tests for millions, as well as contact tracing, quarantine and exceptionally strict entry restrictions.
As a result, everyday life and the economy have largely returned to normal since last summer.
Since then, China has seen only a few localized outbreaks, which were immediately contained with strict control measures.
The Chinese government is pursuing a "zero covid strategy".
For weeks, almost only imported infections have been registered, which could be immediately isolated for a period of two to three weeks for all immigrants due to the compulsory quarantine.
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mxw / dpa / Reuters