China's weakening trade figures should concern us all

If China wanted to appease Donald Trump's ever-present anger at its trade surplus with the United States, the latest trade figures won't work to calm him down.

China's exports to the rest of the world, announced on Monday, were unexpectedly down when they had been expected to rise.

But that was more than offset by the even bigger drop in China's imports.

Analysts had been expecting a 5% rise in China's imports from the rest of the world. Instead, they got a 7.6% fall.

The difference between the amount China sells and the amount it buys - the trade surplus that so excites the US president's wrath - grew bigger.

In fact, the more the US president fulminates about China selling the US far more than it buys, the more it seems to go against him.

By the end of last year, China exported $324bn more in goods and services to the US than it imported. That's a record surplus, more than a quarter bigger than it was before Mr Trump came to power.