China – Japan Trade Flat in 2014

January 13, 2015 Share Print 0

China’s total value of exports and imports for 2014 with Japan remained almost flat from the previous year, while that with the whole world increased 3.4 percent, official data showed Tuesday.

China’s overall combined exports and imports were well below the government’s full-year target of 7.5 percent growth from 2013, amid a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Last year, China’s exports rose 6.1 percent to $2.34 trillion, compared with an expansion of 7.8 percent in 2013, according to the General Administration of Customs, which released the data.

China’s imports edged up 0.4 percent to $1.96 trillion, down sharply from an increase of 7.2 percent in the previous year, the administration said.

But with Japan, exports declined 0.5 percent and imports only increased 0.4 percent, it said, on the back of rising labor costs in China and the depreciation of the Japanese yen.

In 2013, China’s trade with Japan fell about 5.1 percent, which marked the second consecutive year of contraction, as bilateral relations plummeted to their lowest point in many decades over territorial and wartime historical issues.

China’s trade with Japan in 2014 was flat in percentage terms, but it saw a fractional increase in its actual dollar-denominated value, coming in at $312.44 billion.

There are some signs that business sentiment between Asia’s two biggest economies has been improving since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first talks last November.

Meanwhile, with the European Union, China’s largest trade partner, exports rose 9.9 percent on the year and imports jumped 10.7 percent.

With the United States, China’s exports grew 7.5 percent and imports rose 4.2 percent.

via Mainichi

This article is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. Leveraged trading is high risk and not suitable for all. You could lose all of your deposited funds.

Bio
Twitter
Google+
Latest Posts

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.