SHANGHAI: China’s exports are making a comeback after a jarring slump threw millions out of work, a sign of improving global demand that along with a torrent of stimulus money is accelerating recovery in the world’s No. 3 economy.

The trade figures for November were the best in a year with exports falling just 1.2 percent from the same month of 2008.

Retail sales, factory output and investment also saw robust growth last month. The figures released Friday did show a return to inflation, though only at the modest level of 0.6 percent, after nine months of falling prices.

Asian markets rallied as investors were heartened by the signs of rising global demand that could lift other trade-reliant economies in the region as consumers in the US and elsewhere begin spending more after months of holding back.

A sustained improvement in exports could add to pressure from the US, Europe and other trading partners for Beijing to let China’s currency, the yuan, rise. But officials have repeatedly shown they’re in no hurry to alter the policy of a stable currency — in effect keeping the yuan weak to boost the competitiveness of China’s exports.

The 1.2 percent fall in exports was the smallest decline since they collapsed in November 2008 — an upheaval that forced thousands of factories in China’s southern manufacturing heartland to close and cost millions of jobs.

Imports jumped, rising 26.7 percent over the same month last year and narrowing the trade surplus to $19.9 billion in November from $24 billion in October, customs data showed.

Exports had fallen 13.8 percent in October and by much more in previous months. “The decline in exports narrowed greatly in November because external demand is improving,” said Sheng Laiyun, spokesman of the National Statistics Bureau, who briefed reporters in Beijing.

Beijing has vowed to continue to promote exports while also working to boost imports and fortify domestic demand that China’s leaders acknowledge is crucial for sustainable growth in the long-term. Those aims were apparent in measures announced earlier this week following a top-level economic planning meeting in Beijing that pledged to keep stimulus and relaxed credit policies in place to ensure the recovery stays on track.

China’s economy expanded 8.9 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter of this year, after seeing growth dip to 6.1 percent in the first quarter due largely to plunging demand for exports. Most of that growth has been attributed to the impact of a massive lending spree backing the government’s 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package.

The lavish spending spurred a 32.1 percent increase in investment in factories and other construction in the first 11 months of the year, to 16.86 trillion yuan ($2.47 trillion), the statistics bureau reported.

Retail sales, which are playing an increasingly important role in driving growth, climbed 15.8 percent in November from a year earlier, to 1.13 trillion yuan ($166 billion).

EU and US officials, their own economies still far feebler, say China’s recovery means its manufacturers are in good enough shape for Beijing to relax the defacto link between the renminbi — as the yuan is also known — and the US dollar.

Premier Wen Jiabao and other leaders have rejected such appeals.