China’s exports soar despite the trade war

They leaped almost 16% in October compared with the same month a year earlier. That was significantly higher than analysts had forecast and even stronger than last month’s growth.

The performance is surprising because October was the first full month during which new US tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods were in effect. Economists and Chinese government officials said recently that they expected export growth to slow in the final months of the year.