China’s exports and imports rebounded in July, exceeding estimates and adding to signs that the world’s second-largest economy is stabilizing following a two-quarter slowdown.

Shipments abroad rose 5.1 percent from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said in Beijing Thursday. That compares with the median estimate for a 2 percent increase in a Bloomberg News survey and June’s 3.1 percent drop. Imports advanced 10.9 percent, leaving a trade surplus of $17.8 billion.

Improved trade data may bolster Premier Li Keqiang’s chances of achieving the year’s 7.5 percent target for expansion, after official manufacturing and service-industry indexes rose in July. The Politburo, the nation’s top decision-making group of 25 members, pledged last week to stabilize growth while pressing on with economic reforms.

“This confirms our view that the economy has bottomed out and will re-accelerate” in the second half, Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong, said in an e-mail. “We’d like to call the end to worries over China for this year.”

Trade data had shown a slowdown starting in May after the government cracked down on fake invoices that inflated figures earlier in the year.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index of stocks reversed losses following the report and was up 0.1 percent at 11:12 a.m. local time.

Economists’ estimates for July exports ranged from a 4 percent drop to an 8.8 percent increase. The median import projection was for 1 percent growth, with estimates ranging from a 2.3 percent decline to a 6 percent gain. The trade surplus compared with the median estimate for a $26.9 billion excess.

The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index increased to 50.3 in July from 50.1 in June and the non-manufacturing PMI rose to 54.1 from 53.9. Private gauges from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics didn’t show improvement.

China has announced what Bank of America Corp. called a “small stimulus” consisting of measures including tax breaks for small companies and accelerated railway construction while cutting industrial overcapacity and extravagant spending by officials and state-owned enterprises.

The statistics bureau will tomorrow provide data on July’s inflation, industrial production and retail sales and January-July fixed-asset investment. The central bank will publish data on credit and money supply over the next week. (Bloomberg)