Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China reported a smaller-than- forecast $6.45 billion trade surplus in January as import growth outpaced gains in exports for the fourth straight month.
The gap compared with the $11.3 billion median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey and a $13 billion excess in December. Exports rose 37.7 percent to $150.7 billion from a year earlier while imports climbed 51 percent to $144.3 billion, the customs bureau reported on its website today. January data is distorted by the timing of a Chinese holiday.
A smaller surplus may not be enough to ease tensions over the value of the nation’s currency after China was confirmed today to have overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy. Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 nations are likely to discuss the yuan’s value in Paris this week, U.S. lawmakers are reintroducing legislation targeting China, and Brazil plans to discuss its concerns with President Barack Obama next month.
"A smaller surplus would be helpful, but it won’t be enough to quiet down demands for more appreciation because political pressure in the U.S. is mounting again not only from Congress but also the Treasury,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, an economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, said before today’s release.
Japan’s government said today that China became the world’s No. 2 economy in 2010.
The yuan weakened for the second consecutive trading day, slipping 4 basis points to 6.5948 at 11:48 a.m. local time, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. Stocks rose. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained for the third straight trading day, rising 1.75 percent to 2876.80 at the lunchtime break.
