China's technology exports have improved during the U.S. government's trade war with China, according to a study by Harvard University's Growth Lab.  

Judged by the sophistication (sophistication and complexity of products exported) of each country in 2019, China ranked 16th globally, up three places since the outbreak of trade disputes in 2018.  The rankings also forecast that China's economy will grow faster than India's over the next decade.  

Tim Cheston, a senior manager at the development Lab, said that China had made a clever move to expand the export of electronics to Europe and elsewhere, and that its export trade "is now at a level where it fills almost every known sector in the world."  

Development Lab's ranking of exporting technology is changing source: Bloomberg

Tim Cheston, senior manager of applied research in the Development Lab at Harvard University's Center for International Development, said the data shows that China has moved up the rankings by exporting to other regions despite U.S. tariffs, according to Bloomberg.

According to the report, the export technology level is a measure of a country's export diversity, technology maturity and volume of exports.

Judged by the sophistication (sophistication and complexity of products exported) of each country in 2019, China ranked 16th globally, up three places since the outbreak of trade disputes in 2018. The US ranks 11th, with the gap narrowing by more than half over the past decade.

Mr. Chesterton said it was a clever move by China to expand its electronics exports to Europe and elsewhere.

For now, the study did not include export data from the COVID-19 outbreak, but Chesterton noted that the outbreak could push China further up the rankings because of the surge in Chinese exports. "Indications are that China will continue to gain market share because it can keep producing," he said.

In general, the higher a country ranks on the index, the faster its economy grows, but Japan is a special case -- it has been at the top of the list for 19 consecutive years, but its economy has grown slowly, the report said.

The development Lab argues that the gap between the complexity of a country's export trade and its current level of GDP per capita is the strongest predictor of a country's future economic expansion.

Moreover, China's export trade performance stands in stark contrast to that of less affluent India, which has almost the same population -- despite the go nment's 'Make in India' push, India ranked 43rd in 2019.