China trade balance data due today - distortion should be over - preview

China trade balance data for March is due today at 0200 GMT (Friday 13 April 2018

For January and February pretty much every piece of economic data from China was followed by "but", as in "but its been distorted by the Lunar New Year effect".

So, let's see how we go today - March data is not impacted by the holidays.

Trade balance

• (CNY terms) expected 181bn CNY, prior 224.88bn CNY

• (CNY terms) exports expected +8.0% y/y, prior +36.2% (did I mention distortions? ... case in point)
• (CNY terms) imports expected +7.5% y/y, prior -0.2%

Imports are expected much higher after that sharp fall in February