Related readings:  Foreign trade to top US$1.75 trillion this year  Foreign trade barriers cost Chinese exporters US$70 billion  Foreign trade to hit US$1.7 trillion  Foreign trade volume nears US$1 trillion

China's foreign trade hit a record $1.76 trillion last year while the trade surplus widened to $177.5 billion, according to official figures.

However, experts predict that the trade volume and the surplus will rise by a modest 15 percent and 13 percent this year, compared with 23.8 percent and 74 percent for last year.

Exports in 2006 rose 27 percent year-on-year to $969 billion while imports climbed 20 percent to $791.6 billion, the General Administration of Customs said yesterday.

Export growth dropped 1.2 percentage points from 2005 while imports increased 2.4 percentage points.

The total trade volume grew 23.8 percent from a year earlier the fifth year in a row that it has been above 20 percent.

Trade with each of the top three partners, the European Union, the United States and Japan, exceeded $20 billion.

The surplus widened to a record $177.5 billion in 2006, up 74 percent from a year earlier. A countrywide breakdown is not yet available.

In a bid to counter the mounting pressure of increased loans from the trade surplus, the central bank had to order commercial banks to set aside more money as reserves from January 1 for the fourth time in seven months.

The regulator is likely to ask commercial banks to increase reserves another four to five times this year, reports said.

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