After a brief scare in March when a deficit was registered, China’s trade balance -- the value of its exports minus its imports -- has once again returned to a growth path, registering a $1.68 billion surplus last month.
China's trade surplus of $1.68 billion in April was 87 per cent lower than the figure for the corresponding month of the previous year, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said today.
According to the new figures, China's exports in April totaled $119.92 billion, up 30.5 per cent from a year ago and 6.3 per cent from March, while imports reached $118.24 billion, up 49.7 per cent year-on-year.
Combining imports and exports, China's April external trade rose 39.4 per cent year on year to $238.16 billion. Taking the first four months together, China's January-April external trade increased 42.7 per cent from a year ago to $855.99 billion, Xinhua news agency reported.
However, in March, China’s trade deficit was pegged at $7.24 billion, the first time this has happened since April 2004.
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According to GAC figures for the January-April period, the European Union remained China's largest trading partner, with China-EU bilateral trade topping $137.77 billion, up 34.6 per cent from the same period last year.
January-April trade between China and the United States, the country's second largest trading partner, increased 25 per cent year-on-year to $107.18 billion.
Japan was China's third largest trading partner in the first four months. January-April trade between China and Japan gained 37.5 per cent to $88.66 billion, up 34.6 per cent from a year ago. In the first four months, China's trade deficit with Japan more than doubled to $17.72 billion.
China also recorded a trade deficit of $5.87 billion with ASEAN from January to April, compared with a $830 million trade surplus in the same period last year.