China’s customs authorities reported that exports rose 14.1% year over year in U.S. dollar terms in April 2026, accelerating from March’s 2.5% growth.
Imports increased 25.3% from a year earlier, following a 27.8% rise in March. The reported monthly trade surplus widened to about $84.8 billion from $51.13 billion.
Factory activity and input costs
The National Bureau of Statistics’ manufacturing purchasing managers’ index stood at 50.3 in April, down from 50.4 in March but above the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. The survey’s separate new export orders measure was reported to have reached its highest level in two years.
Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at ANZ, said the Middle East conflict had increased demand to replenish manufacturing inventories. That assessment offered an explanation for stronger trade, although it did not quantify how much advance purchasing contributed to April’s export growth.
Manufacturers also faced elevated prices. In an April 30 assessment, National Bureau of Statistics statistician Huo Lihui said the raw-material purchase price and factory-gate price indexes remained high by the standards of recent years, at 63.7 and 55.1 respectively. These are survey index readings, rather than percentage increases in prices.
Huo said both price indexes in petroleum, coal and other fuel processing, and chemical manufacturing had remained above 70 for two consecutive months, indicating continued price increases in those industries.
Domestic growth and trade diplomacy
Preliminary National Bureau of Statistics estimates put China’s first-quarter gross domestic product growth at 5% year over year. That matched the upper end of the government’s full-year growth target of 4.5% to 5%.
Retail sales of consumer goods increased 2.4% in the first quarter, while value added at industrial enterprises above the designated size grew 6.1%. The bureau reported a surveyed urban unemployment rate of 5.4% in March.
The trade figures came ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on March 25 that the meeting would take place in Beijing on May 14 and 15.
At a May 7 briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated Beijing’s position that Taiwan was central to China’s relationship with the United States.
