Soft landing: a worker stuffs toy bears in a Shanghai factory. China’s slowdown has been slower than some other Asian economies

China’s trade surplus grew to another record last month as the its exporters continued to show greater than expected resilience in the face of a global slowdown.

The politically sensitive trade surplus, which already stood at record levels in September, grew a further 20 per cent last month to $35.2bn after a modest reduction in the growth rate of exports was accompanied by a sharper drop in import growth.