Government figures released on Wednesday show exports grew 36.3 percent year-on-year in September to reach $447.18bn, accelerating from a 25 percent gain in August. Imports rose 31 percent year-on-year, up from 28.2 percent in August.
Tech-related trade led the expansion, with semiconductor exports surging more than 108 percent and shipments of automatic data processing machines jumping nearly 55 percent. The leap marked the biggest monthly rise since 2021, when China’s trade figures were distorted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
“High-tech demand, supported by the global and domestic AI upcycle, remained the key driver, while China’s pricing and supply-chain competitiveness in other major export categories also helped sustain the momentum,” said Taylor Wang, an economist at HSBC in Hong Kong, in a note to clients.
For the first nine months of the year, total exports rose 21.3 percent to $3.37 trillion, while imports gained 27.5 percent to $2.43 trillion, yielding a trade surplus of $938.1bn.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was China’s biggest export market in September, with exports rising more than 52 percent to $81.7bn. Exports to the European Union rose 25.3 percent to $60.15bn, while shipments to the United States jumped 39.6 percent to $47.88bn.
China’s economy is expected to grow 4.5 percent in 2026, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest outlook, the slowest expansion since 1990 outside the pandemic years. The government is targeting 4.5-5 percent growth.
“The strong export growth should keep China’s growth on track to achieve its growth target of 4.5-5 percent for 2026,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING. “Nonetheless, growth remains quite unbalanced, with domestic data quite soft in comparison. It will be important to rebalance growth over the medium term if China is to achieve its long-term growth targets.”