November exports down 1.2%, imports up 27%

Imports jumped 27 percent in November from a year earlier, breaking a streak of 12 straight months of year-on-year declines. But exports are still in the red, with a fall of 1.2 percent. But Chinese exports were still an improvement from the 13.8 percent drop posted in October, while growth in imports was up from a 6.4 percent fall that month.

We're also seeing continued easing in the trade surplus with November's 19 billion US dollars down from 24 billion in October and a big drop from the 40 billion US dollars for November last year.

In fact the trade surplus was rather less than economists had expected... they'd forecast a 23.8 billion-dollar surplus based on a 0.9 percent rise in exports and a 20 percent rise in imports.