Finance

China’s exports and imports grew far less than expected in September

Published

6 months ago

October 14, 2024

Business Finance News

A shipping container and gantry cranes at the Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s exports grew by 2.4% in September from a year ago in U.S. dollar terms, while imports rose by 0.3%, customs data showed Monday.

Both figures were well below expectations. China’s exports were forecast to have risen by 6% year-on-year in September in U.S. dollar terms, according to a Reuters poll. That would be slower than the 8.7% increase in August.

Imports were expected to have climbed by 0.9% in September from a year ago, according to the Reuters poll. That would be slightly faster than the 0.5% increase in August.

Exports had been a bright spot in China’s economy, which has been weighed down by lackluster consumer spending and a real estate slump.

China’s exports to the U.S., its largest trading partner, rose by 2.2% in September from a year ago, while imports from the U.S. climbed by 6.7%, according to CNBC’s analysis of official data.

China focusing more on boosting consumer demand would be a 'good sign': strategist

Exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China’s largest trading partner on a regional basis, rose by 5.5%, while imports rose by 4.2%. China’s exports to the European Union rose by 1.3%, while imports dropped by 4%.

China’s exports to Russia surged by 16.6%, but imports fell by 8.4%, the analysis showed.

Inflation data out Sunday pointed to further weakness in China’s domestic demand.

The core consumer price index, which strips out more volatile food and energy prices, rose by 0.1% in September from a year ago. That’s the slowest since February 2021, according to the Wind Information database. Tourism-related prices fell by 2.1% year-on-year, despite the Mid-Autumn Festival in September and Golden Week holiday that kicked off Oct. 1.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release third-quarter GDP on Friday, along with retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment for September.

Chinese authorities have ramped up stimulus announcements since late last month, while so far falling short on the fiscal policy details many investors have hoped for. Stocks in China have swung wildly as beaten-down markets debate the ultimate impact of Beijing’s economic support.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Finance

More Americans buy groceries with buy now, pay later loans

Published

9 minutes ago

April 26, 2025

Business Finance News

People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025.

Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.

The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.

In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.

Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.

Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.

“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”

“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.

He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.

“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”

The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once.

“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.”

Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.

Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers.

Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.