Filed in the "are you kidding us" folder... Chinese exports rose an astounding 14.5% YoY in July (the biggest surge since April 2013 and double the 7.0% YoY expectations). Chinese imports plunged 1.6% to 4-month lows, dramatically missing expectations of a 2.6% YoY gain. These miracles of goalseek.xls and fake trade invoicing [5] left the Chinese Trade Balance for July at $47.3 Billion - its highest ever (ever) and almost double the $27.4bn expectations. In the midst of collapsing European economies, plunging Russia, and stumbling 'hard' US macro data, the Chinese government would have us believe the world (net) bought the most stuff ever from them in July...
Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you...
[6]
It would appear - as we noted previously, that China is up to its old tricks... [5]
China's exports have been overstated by Chinese data...
[7]
We cannot show just how crazy this data is because US and more importantly Hong Kong imports from China data is not updated to end July yet... but it is noteworthy that the hub of fake invoicing - Hong Kong - saw a 13.3% YoY jump - its most in 16 months... after being totally flat for 4 months
