BEIJING,
China's massive annual trade surplus exceeded $1 trillion for the first time last month, according to data released Monday, as a sharp drop in shipments to the United States was offset by rising exports to other major markets.
When Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met in late October, they reached a tentative truce in their fierce trade war, agreeing to pause painful measures such as high tit-for-tat tariffs.
Exports have been a critical economic lifeline for China as trade and relations with the United States and other countries have fluctuated in recent years.
This has helped to temper a prolonged debt crisis in the country's vast property sector, as well as sluggish domestic spending, both of which have weighed on growth and are among Beijing's most pressing issues.
The General Administration of Customs reported that exports increased 5.9 percent year on year in November, reversing a slight decline in October.
The reading also exceeded a Bloomberg forecast of 4% growth.
The increase occurred despite a continued decline in shipments to the United States, which fell 28.6 percent to $33.8 billion in November, according to the data.
"Weakness in exports to the United States was more than offset by shipments to other markets," Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a note.
"Exports are likely to remain resilient, thanks to trade rerouting and rising price competitiveness as deflation drives down China's real effective exchange rate," Huang stated.
The increase in shipments last month boosted the country's ballooning annual trade surplus for the first 11 months of the year, which Customs data showed reached $1.08 trillion in November.
"China's trade surplus this year has already exceeded last year's level, and we expect it to grow even more next year," Huang wrote.
However, major Western trading partners have long been concerned about the imbalance.
In remarks published Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to impose tariffs on China if Beijing did not reduce its massive trade surplus with the EU.
Macron, who wrapped up a state visit to China last week, warned in the business daily Les Echos that "Europeans will be forced to take strong measures in the coming months."
In a further sign of China's weak domestic consumption, data released Monday showed that imports increased 1.9% year on year in November, slower than the 3% increase predicted by Bloomberg.
"The rebound in export growth in November helps to mitigate the weak domestic demand," Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
"The economic momentum slowed in the fourth quarter, partly due to the continued weakness in the property sector," he stated.
At their October meeting in South Korea, Xi and Trump agreed to reduce the sky-high tariffs on each other's goods and the harsh export controls that had sent shockwaves through global industries.
The détente is set to expire late next year, giving officials time to reach a permanent agreement—though experts warn such a breakthrough will be difficult.
"There's no guarantee this uneasy truce will last that long," Lynn Song, ING's chief economist for Greater China, stated last week.
"A lot needs to go right for the agreement to hold for the entire year," he wrote, adding that "it appears prudent to expect a softer external demand backdrop for next year."
China's leaders are expected to hold a key meeting this week focused on economic planning, with an overall growth target of 5% for the year.
