China’s trade records show an uptick in December, 2025, which led to a surge in trade surplus of almost USD 1.2 trillion in the year, the government said on Wednesday.
While China’s trade surplus in 2024 was USD 992 billion, the country’s global surplus rose 20 per cent in 2025, which included exports at USD 3.77 trillion and imports at USD 2.58 trillion, as per customs data.
Although China’s exports to the US fell sharply last year after US President Donald Trump escalated his trade war and imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US, the decline was off-set by Beijing’s heavy trade basket that includes shipments to markets in South America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Europe.
The country’s exports for December were up 6.6 per cent from the previous year, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase. Imports in December were also up 5.7 per cent year-on-year, compared to November’s 1.9 per cent.
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The strong exports also helped keep China’s economy growing at an annual rate close to its official target of about 5 per cent, although they sparked alarm in other countries, including neighbouring India, for damaging local players by flooding their markets with cheap imports.
Last month, the head of the International Monetary Fund had called for China to fix its economic imbalances and speed up its shift from reliance on exports by boosting domestic demand and investment.
Economists now expect exports to continue to support China’s economy this year too, despite trade friction and geopolitical tensions.
“We continue to expect exports to act as a big growth driver in 2026,” said Jacqueline Rong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas.
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