December Foreign trade surplus big drop nearly 30%

2010 China Import and export trend chart. Last year, China's trade surplus was reduced by 6.4% this newspaper (reporter Fangliping) yesterday, the General Administration of customs published trade data show that December China's import and export value reached a record high of 295.22 billion U.S. dollars, growth of 21.4%, the chain growth of 4%; exports, import value both refresh record highs,　　Exports of 154.15 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 17.9%, the chain growth of 0.5%, import 141.07 billion U.S. dollars, year-on-year growth of 25.6%, the month's trade surplus of 8% U.S. dollars, the year-on-year decrease of 13.08 billion. 2010 China's foreign trade import and export value of 2,972,760,000,000 U.S. dollars, an increase of 34.7%. Exports of 1,577,930,000,000 U.S. dollars, an increase of 31.3% per cent, imports of 1,394,830,000,000 U.S. dollars, an increase of 38.7% year-on-year, because the export growth rate is far lower than the increase in imports, the annual trade surplus of 183.1 billion U.S. dollars, reducing 6.4%.　　At the same time, China's trade surplus and the total value of imports and exports further reduced from 2009 8.9% to 6.2%, the overall foreign trade to the basic balance of the direction of development.　　The main reason for the decline in the trade surplus, said Dr Lu Zhiming, an analyst at the Bank of Communications Finance Research Center, is that exports have risen less than imports when total imports and exports have reached record highs. Lu Zhiming said that the global economic and trade environment will improve overall in 2011, when the world economy will build a bottom up. But continued cooling within and outside the country could slow the growth of emerging markets in the future. In view of the high base period in 2010, exports of 2011 Year-on-year growth will be reduced to 15%~20%. China's import growth rate is expected to fall sharply in 2011, roughly in the 20%~25% range, slightly faster than the export year-on-year growth. Exports and imports will continue to expand in 2011, but exports are likely to grow slower than imports on a year-on-year pace. So the 2011 trade surplus is expected to shrink to around $150 billion trillion.