China reported a drop in exports for December, marking the biggest monthly fall in outbound shipments in two years amid a slowing economy and trade war with the US, even as the country’s trade surplus rose to a three-year high.

China’s General Administration of Customs on Monday reported December exports fell 4.4 per cent year on year in dollar terms, far below a median forecast of 3 per cent growth from economists polled by Reuters, while imports shrank 7.6 per cent against expectations of a 5 per cent rise. Those trade flows shook out to a trade surplus of $57.06bn in December, jumping to the highest in three years.

The drop in part reflected a shift for US importers after Washington and Beijing struck a trade truce in early December, “reducing the urgency among US firms to front-load their imports ahead of Trump’s previously threatened tariff hikes”, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.