Opinion: China Exports Outlook Brightens as Goods Shipments Beat Expectations

While the recent news cycle about China’s exports has focused on the decline in orders, there are favorable signs that can make us more optimistic about the outlook.

In January and February combined, China’s goods exports fell 6.8% year-on-year in dollar terms, but this beat expectations of a 9% contraction, and narrowed 3.1 percentage points compared to December’s decline. This indicates that to some extent, market expectations had been too pessimistic.