China’s trade grew faster than expected last month, official data showed Monday, though fresh fears are rising of a major escalation in the tariff war between Beijing and Washington.

The world’s second-largest economy has in recent years been mired in a persistent domestic spending slump just as pressure on its export-reliant manufacturing sector intensifies.

Clouding the outlook, concerns spiked over the weekend that the trade war between the world’s top two economies will worsen after US President Donald Trump announced additional 100 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods.

The move, he said, was in response to Beijing’s announcement last week of sweeping new export controls in the strategic field of rare earths — currently dominated by China.

Exports jumped 8.3 percent year on year in

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