China's April trade surplus falls by 87 per cent to $1.68 billion: Xinhua

China recorded a trade surplus of $1.68 billion in April, down 87 per cent from a year earlier, the Chinese General Administration of Customs (GAC) said today.

China's total exports in April were up 30.5 per cent to $119.92 billion from a year ago and up 6.3 per cent from March 2010.

While imports reached $118.24 billion, up 49.7 per cent year-on-year, they were down under 1 per cent from March according to the GAC figures,

China's April external trade rose 39.4 per cent year-on-year to $238.16 billion combining total imports and exports.

The country's January-April external trade increased 42.7 per cent to $855.99 billion from a year earlier. However, its January to April trade surplus was sharply down 78.6 per cent to $16.11 billion in from a year earlier.

China's exports grew 29.2 per cent to $436.05 billion while imports grew 60.1 per cent to $419.94 billion year-on-year.

The European Union remained China's largest trading partner, with China-EU bilateral trade topping $137.77 billion in the January-April period, up 34.6 from the same period last year, according to the GAC data.

While in the January-April period, US, the country's second largest trading partner saw an increase of bilateral trade of 25 percent year-on-year to $107.18 billion.