BEIJING: China's politically sensitive trade surplus
widened to $17 billion in October from $14.51 billion in the
previous month, official data showed Thursday.
Exports rose 15.9 per cent year on year to $157.49 billion,
compared with a rise of 17.1 per cent in September, the customs
agency said in a statement.
Imports expanded 28.7 percent to $140.46 billion in October,
compared with an increase of 20.9 per cent in September.
The data is likely to fuel concerns over the country's vast
manufacturing sector, which employs hundreds of millions of people
and is a major driver of the world's second largest economy.
Beijing, anxious about surging inflation, has been pulling on a
variety of levers to curb consumer and property prices in the past
year, including restricting the amount of money banks can lend and
hiking interest rates.
The measures appear to be taking effect -- inflation slowed sharply
in October from the previous month, property sales have declined
nationwide and output from the country's millions of factories and
workshops has slowed.
But Beijing has indicated it may fine-tune policy as the deepening
eurozone crisis and US economic woes squeeze demand for Chinese
exports and small businesses struggle to get financing, putting at
risk millions of jobs.
Premier Wen Jiabao repeated last month that controlling prices was
a key task, but also said the government could alter economic
policy when the time was right, fuelling expectations for an easing
in credit restrictions.
Analysts said policymakers were likely to reduce the reserve
requirement ratio -- the portion of deposits banks must set aside
-- in the coming months to spur lending, but they ruled out a
change in interest rates.
The figure is a perennial point of contention for China's key trade
partners, the United States and Europe, who argue the country's
currency is grossly undervalued, which gives its exporters an
unfair advantage.
- AFP/fa