Chinese imports, exports rise in July

Chinese imports and exports rose year-on-year in July but analysts say trade growth appears to be on a downward trend.

Chinese imports rose by 14.7 per cent year-on-year in July while exports increased by 11.2 per cent, the Chinese General Administration of Customs reported says.

In July, the trade surplus reached 321.2 billion yuan ($A60.6 billion), representing an increase of about 1.4 per cent compared with the same month in 2016.

The trade data of July 2017, however, did not meet experts' expectations as analysts estimated imports to grow by about 15 per cent and exports between 18 per cent and 22 per cent.

This could be explained in part by the negative effects of prices due to cooling producer price inflation, Capital Economics analyst Julian Evans-Pritchard says.

"Despite the uptick at the end of (the second quarter), trade growth now appears to be on a downward trend," he said.

Evans-Pritchard said "the sharp decline in import growth since the start of the year suggests that domestic demand is softening".