15-02-2008
China's trade surplus widens
Official data has revealed a sharp increase in China's trade surplus.
According to recently released data China's customs agency, despite attempts to reduce growth levels, over the course of last month the country's trade surplus increased to $22.7 billion (£11.5 billion), a rise of 19.5 per cent when compared with the same month in the previous year, reports the BBC.
At the same point in 2007, China had a trade surplus of $15.9 billion and the International Monetary Fund has already confirmed that, over the course of 2008, the Chinese economy is likely to grow at a rate of ten per cent.
"The first point is that we haven't really seen any significant softening of the growth numbers in terms of both exports and imports," said Yiping Huang, chief economist for China at Citigroup in Hong Kong.
"The trade surplus figure is a bit lower than in the previous months, but still very strong."
Last month the country's export levels rose by 26.7 per cent.