China overtakes US to become world's biggest goods trader
Some economists are critical of the quality of China's economic data, suggesting it can be distorted by political pressure and the sheer challenge of tracking activity across the country.
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Companies can also invent exports as a way of circumventing controls on cross-border transactions -- something Beijing has been clamping down on.
Sun Junwei, China economist at HSBC in Beijing, reckons the record-breaking figures announced today are probably more reliable than before, saying: Recent measures could be working to squeeze out these fake trade activities.
We actually think these activities would be relatively contained this year compared with last year.
Rajiv Biswas, chief economist Asia-Pacific at IHS, predicts that the gap between the overall trade of China and the US will probably be close to $250bn.
"That is a significant difference and it is unlikely that any adjustment to the final figures will alter the position of the two countries."
That's via BBC News.
I mentioned in the opening post that China's trade surplus for December shank by more than expected -- well, IG's Stan Shamu calls it a "high-quality miss"
While the headline reading was weak, it was a high quality miss once dissected. Imports were up 8.3%, smashing expectations of 5% and showing the second highest nominal reading ever recorded.
While exports missed estimates at +4.3% (versus +5% expected), the value of exports was the highest ever recorded.
