Foreign trade picking up

Chinese exports rose 5.1 percent year-on-year in July, but were outpaced by an even steeper rise in imports which grew 10.9 percent, according to latest foreign trade figures released by the Chinese Customs Office Thursday.

The result marked a rebound in the foreign trade of the world's second-largest economy, showing a stabilizing and recovering trend, China's trade authority said in a statement.

The figures surprised analysts, who had forecast exports to rise by a median 2.8 percent and imports by 1.3 percent in a poll conducted by Dow Jones Newswires.

Despite noting that the results were surprisingly good, Alaistair Chan, economist at Moody's Analytics, warned, against being too optimistic.

“July seems to reflect a return to a normal, relatively uninspiring trend rather than the beginning of an acceleration in growth. The upturn will remain flat,” Chan told the AFP news agency.

Since the end of last year, growth in China's economic output has steadily declined, slumping from 7.9 percent in the final quarter of 2012, and 7.7 percent in the first three months of 2013 to 7.5 percent in the second quarter of this year.

German exports gather momentum

German exports also grew, according to figures for June presented by the German Statistics Office, Destatis, on Thursday.

Exports rose by 0.6 percent from the previous month of May, Destatis data showed. Import figures fell by 0.8 percent.

German goods and services to the tune of 92.8 billion euros ($123 billion) were shipped abroad, which was 2.1 percent less than in June last year.

Deutsche Bank analyst Heiko Peters told Reuters news agency that he expected an upswing for German exports in the coming months, predicting that the Chinese economy would recover and growth in the United States would accelerate.

uhe/msh (dpa, Reuters, AFP, AP)