China's trade surplus in October rose 13.5 percent over the same
month last year to a new high of US$27.05 billion, the General
Administration of Customs said on Monday.
The previous monthly record was US$26.9 billion, set in
June.
It was also higher than the US$23.91 billion in September but
lower than the average US$30.6 billion predicted by large financial
institutions such as Bank of China (Hong Kong) and JP Morgan
Chase.
In October, exports reached US$107.73 billion, up 22.3 percent
year-on-year yet down 0.5 percentage points over September. Imports
grew to US$80.67 billion, up 25.5 percent or 9.4 percentage points
higher than September.
The administration said in its monthly report, "The slowdown in
export growth and a steady increase in imports reflected the
country's efforts to improve foreign trade beginning to pay
off."
Chinese government is striving to adjust the trade mix by
improving policies concerning export tax rebates, tariffs and
processing trade and by restricting exports of highly
energy-consuming products.
In its latest bid to curb the expansion of exports, China
discouraged foreign investment in export-oriented industries in the
newly-issued guide for foreign investment.
However, despite the country's efforts to cool down sizzling
exports, trade surplus in the January-October period amounted to
US$212.36 billion, up 59 percent. The growth rate, however, was
10.2 percentage points lower than the first nine months.
Yao Jingyuan, chief economist with the National Bureau of
Statistics, predicted on Saturday trade surplus for the whole year
would hit US$250 billion.
A report released by the central bank forecast the country's
trade surplus in 2008 would remain at a high level but the growth
would steadily slow down.
"The yawning surplus figure is dangerous. It will not only
ignite inflation but aggravate already tense trading relations with
the country's major trade partners," said Long Guoqiang, an expert
of the Macroeconomic Research Institute of the Development Research
Center of the State Council.
He said the US and other trade partners would further press
China to ease controls on its currency, which they said was
undervalued and gave Chinese exporters an unfair price
advantage.
"The continuous surplus will boost the market expectation of the
yuan's revaluation and increase the pressure on appreciation of the
Chinese currency", Long said.
Official figures show the accumulative appreciation since July
21, 2005, when China discontinued yuan's peg to the greenback, has
exceeded 8.3 percent.
A central bank report released last week said the price growth
of imported goods slowed down while that of exported commodities
accelerated in September. As China is increasingly dependent on
imports of resources products, the appreciation of yuan would
reduce the cost of imports, which in turn would help suppress the
increase of retail sales price, one of the major gauges of
inflation.
The European Union remained China's largest trading partner,
with the bilateral trade volume standing at US$287.5 billion from
January to October, up 27.5 percent compared with the same period
last year.
The US and Japan are China's second and third largest trading
partners, with the total trading volume both up around 15.7 percent
to US$248.2 billion and US$191.9 billion, respectively.
China's trade volume totaled US$1.76 trillion for the first ten
months of 2007, up 23.5 percent on last year. The growth rate was
the same as September.
Exports in the first ten months reached US$985.84 billion, up
26.5 percent year-on-year and imports grew 19.8 percent to
US$773.48 billion.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2007)
