China’s goods trade surplus exceeded $1 trillion between January and October 2026, according to Associated Press reporting on customs data. China’s customs agency reported exports of 25.99 trillion yuan and imports of 18.82 trillion yuan over those ten months. Subtracting the rounded figures gives a surplus of about 7.17 trillion yuan.
The figure describes goods trade so far this year. It is not a forecast for all of 2026, and it does not include services.
What a trade surplus measures
A country records a goods trade surplus when the value of goods it exports exceeds the value of goods it imports. The balance measures trade values, not company profits or household income.
The customs figures republished by China’s Ministry of Commerce put total goods trade at 44.81 trillion yuan in the first ten months of 2026, up 20% from the same period a year earlier. Export value rose 17.6%, while import value rose 23.6%. Imports grew faster in percentage terms, but exports remained larger in value.
What October adds
In October alone, China reported 2.79 trillion yuan in goods exports and 2.08 trillion yuan in imports. The difference is about 710 billion yuan using the published rounded figures. In yuan terms, exports rose 28.7% and imports rose 34.7% from October 2025.
The Associated Press reported the January-to-October surplus as $1.04 trillion. It put October’s dollar-denominated surplus at $105.3 billion, below September’s $133.5 billion. Readers should keep the currency and period attached to each figure rather than treating the yuan and dollar totals as interchangeable.
The next customs releases will show whether the cumulative gap widens or narrows before the year ends.
