China's exports rose at the fastest pace in three months in September, easing concerns that the global economy is heading for the first recession since 2009.

Overseas shipments increased 9.9 percent from a year earlier, the  customs administration  said yesterday in Beijing. That was more than the 5.5 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists and a 2.7 percent gain in August. Imports rose 2.4 percent, leaving a $27.7 billion  trade surplus, the biggest since June.

The  International Monetary Fund  warned this week of an alarmingly high risk of a deeper global slowdown unless officials in the U.S. and Europe address threats to their economies. China’s widening surplus may provide ammunition to Republican presidential candidate  Mitt Romney, who pledges to designate the nation a currency manipulator if elected, a step the U.S. government hasn’t taken since 1994.

“We could see China’s export growth maintained at 8 to 9 percent in the fourth quarter,” said Liu Li-Gang, a Hong Kong- based economist with  Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), citing improved U.S. consumer sentiment and favorable year- earlier bases for comparison. “But growth of more than 10 percent is unlikely as a recession in Europe won’t change China’s export outlook there.”

Anti-China rhetoric may become stronger in the lead-up to the presidential election on Nov. 6, said Liu, adding that the yuan, near a 19-year high against the dollar, may appreciate until then in response to the pressure.