China maintained robust growth in foreign trade during the first half of the year, with imports skyrocketing by 44.5 percent and exports up 34 percent year-on-year, the trade ministry reported.

Imports for the first six months of 2003 were valued at 185.8 billion dollars, while exports totaled 190.3 billion dollars, giving China a 4.49 billion dollar trade surplus for the period, the ministry said on its website.

Total trade for the first half was valued at 376 billion dollars, up 39 percent over the same period last year, it said.

The surplus was down 66.5 percent from the same period last year but it did not give an absolute figure and did not say if there were any adjustments to previously announced data.

Exports in the month of June were valued at 34.47 billion dollars, up 32.6 percent over the same month last year, while imports totaled 32.3 billion dollars, up 40 percent over June in 2002.

June's trade surplus came in at 2.1 billion dollars, down 26.5 percent over the same month last year, it said.

China recorded a trade surplus of 2.38 billion dollars in the first five months of this year, with total foreign trade through May up 39.6 percent year-on-year.

China's exports fell 4.9 percentage points month-on-month in May following April's 35.6 billion dollar export performance.

Imports during May were down 8.6 percentage points from the previous month, marking a rare monthly trade downturn due to reduced new orders as a result of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

The year-on-year growth rate in foreign trade, however, has yet to show any significant negative impact from SARS in view of orders placed before the outbreak.

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