China’s exports unexpectedly fell in March, and its imports dropped even more sharply, but the significance of the data for the Chinese economy was clouded by uncertainty over the extent to which exporters and importers were timing shipments to profit from currency market shifts. China’s exports fell 6.6 percent in dollar terms last month, compared with a year ago, while imports tumbled 11.3 percent, China’s General Administration of Customs said on Thursday. Economists had expected both to show small increases. But the change in exports was particularly hard to predict because many exporters had overstated the value of their shipments a year ago to circumvent China’s currency controls. The over-invoicing allowed exporters to bring more dollars into the country, placing a bet on further appreciation of the renminbi, the Chinese currency. By contrast, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, pushed the value of […]