Economy
China's trade surplus hits $1.68b, down sharply in April
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-10 14:43
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BEIJING: China posted a trade surplus of $1.68 billion in April, down 87 percent from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said on Monday.
According to the GAC figures, China's exports in April totaled $119.92 billion, up 30.5 percent from a year ago and 6.3 percent from March. While imports reached $118.24 billion, up 49.7 percent year-on-year.
Combining imports and exports, China's April external trade rose 39.4 percent year-on-year to $238.16 billion.
Taking the first four months together, China's January-April external trade increased 42.7 percent from a year earlier to $855.99 billion.
From January to April, China's exports rose 29.2 percent year-on-year to $436.05 billion while imports grew 60.1 percent to $419.94 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $16.11 billion in the first four months, sharply down 78.6 percent from a year earlier.
According to the GAC figures for the January-April period, the European Union remained China's largest trading partner, with China-EU bilateral trade topping $137.77 billion, up 34.6 from the same period last year.
Japan outpaced the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as China's third largest trading partner in the first four months, revealed the GAC statistics.
January-April trade between China and Japan gained 37.5 percent to $88.66 billion, up 34.6 percent from a year ago. In the first four months, China's trade deficit with Japan more than doubled to $17.72 billion.
China also recorded a trade deficit of $5.87 billion with ASEAN from January to April, compared with $830 million of trade surplus with ASEAN in the same period last year.
