Foreign media upbeat on Chinese economy following trade data

BEIJING - After months of painting a gloomy picture of the Chinese economy, some foreign media organizations have issued articles citing mostly positive comments regarding the country's latest trade data.

China's exports in yuan-denominated terms surged 18.7 percent year-on- year in March, the first increase since December, compared with a slump of 20.6 percent in February and a 6.6-percent fall in January, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs released on Wednesday.

Imports dipped 1.7 percent, an improvement from February's 8-percent drop.

The latest trade statistics indicate that China may have avoided the worst scenario that rattled investors earlier this year, American news TV channel CNBC cited Helen Qiao, chief economist for greater China with the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as saying.

"People, at that time, were too overwhelmed by the worries China could be deleveraging too quickly...(and hit) a hard landing in the economics," she said. Looking at the climate in March and into April, "we're seeing actually more and more investment going through."

Meanwhile, Reuters also issued an article titled "China's jump in exports soothes growth fears, boost markets."

In the Reuters article, Tony Nash, managing partner at the global trade advisory firm Complete Intelligence, said that he sees China's exports and imports stabilizing over the next six months.

Citing a research note by the HSBC, the article also says that China's rising exports are "due in some part to a successful move up the value chain by mid-tier manufacturers."

In a similar article on China's latest trade figures, the Financial Times concluded that China's export surge points to an improving economic outlook.

China's trade data for March point to healthy growth in import volumes and add to growing evidence that the gloom and doom reports of a few weeks ago about the domestic economy were premature, the FT report cited Marcel Thieliant and Mark Williams at Capital Economics as saying.