While exports from China to the U.S. have fallen for most of the year, shipments have surged to other places, including Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the European Union.
China’s exports returned to growth in November following an unexpected contraction the month before, although shipments to the United States dropped nearly 29% from a year earlier in an eighth straight month of double-digit declines.
Overall exports from China in November were 5.9% higher than last year in dollar terms, according to customs data released Monday, at $330.3 billion, exceeding economists’ estimates. That was an improvement from a 1.1% contraction in October.
Underscoring a widening gap between overall exports and imports, the customs data showed that China’s trade surplus for the first 11 months surpassed the $1 trillion mark, at nearly $1.08 trillion. That’s a record high for any single year and is more than the $992 billion surplus in all of 2024, based on official data compiled by FactSet.
The world is moving on without the US.
Here in the United States, we’ve been very disappointed with our leadership for some time now. We decided to do something about it, which is good. Unfortunately, the solution we came up with was to put significantly worse leadership in place. Whoops.
I read the title as saying that US exports fell. Afaict that’s not what is meant, as the post body clarifies. US imported much less from China. US export data seems to be on a slower release schedule, but have been pretty similar to previous years.
because retailers know 2025 will be the poorest Christmas in decades, if ever.
You’re saying that US retailers imported less from Chinese manufacturers because they predict lower sales?
I think we have black Friday sales figures to estimate this off of. While I would have predicted you are correct, I don’t think the data agree. It’s not great, but my impression was that we’re currently better off than the great recession. Do let me know if there’s good data indicating otherwise.
