China becomes biggest exporter

China has overtaken Germany as the world's biggest exporter of goods after exports rose for the first time in 14 months, data has shown. 

• In the last month of 2009 Chinese exports rose 17.7 per cent on the previous year, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Sunday, quoting figures from the general administration of customs.
• That made total exports for the year just over $1.2 trillion, ahead of the $1.17 trillion forecast last month for Germany, according to the BGA foreign trade organisation.

  China’s new status reflects the ability of its low-cost manufacturers to keep selling abroad despite a collapse in global consumer demand due to the financial crisis.

• Huang Guohua, a customs agency economist, said the December rise was an “important turning point”.
• “We can say that China’s export enterprises have completely emerged from their all-time low in exports,” Huang said.

  The December data broke a long string of contracted export figures stretching back to late 2008.

  
  China’s politically sensitive trade surplus shrank by 34.2 per cent in 2009 to $196.07 billion, Xinhua said.

• That reflected China’s stronger economic growth, driven by a $586bn stimulus package, and demand for imported raw materials and consumer goods at a time when demand in the US and other foreign markets was weaker.

  China’s official title of world’s biggest exporter is expected to be confirmed when Germany releases full-year trade figures on February 9.

• Experts have said a resurgence in Chinese trade will likely bring renewed pressure on China to let its yuan currency appreciate.
• The value of the yuan, which has effectively been pegged to the US dollar since mid-2008, has been an issue of contention between Beijing and its Western trading partners, who say it keeps the currency low to boost exports.
• Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, said last month in an interview with state media that China would not yield to foreign pressure on the yuan.