|
|
|
Monday May 12, 1:45 PM
China's trade surplus hits 16.7 billion dollars in April: customsChina's trade surplus stood at 16.7 billion dollars in April, according to customs figures made public Monday. The figure compares with a trade surplus of 13.4 billion dollars in March, and 8.6 billion dollars in February.
Chinese exports in April rose 21.8 percent from a year earlier to 118.7 billion dollars, while imports increased 26.3 percent to 102 billion dollars, the figures showed. The trade surplus for the first four months reached 58.0 billion dollars, the bureau said. It did not say how much it had changed from the same period last year. In the four months from January to April, exports rose 21.5 percent from the same period a year earlier to 424.6 billion dollars, the bureau said. Imports in the same four months totalled 366.6 billion dollars, up 27.9 percent. China's trade surplus is used as ammunition by its foreign trade partners as they seek to persuade Beijing to allow its currency to rise at a faster pace against the dollar. They argue that the Chinese currency is kept at an artificially low level, giving the nation's exporters an unfair price advantage in the global markets. The Chinese currency, the yuan, has risen steadily from 8.3 to the US dollar about three years ago to the current level of about 7.0 to the dollar.
|
|
Copyright ©
2008
AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed in this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presses.
|
