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China's trade surplus continues to grow

By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-11 08:41

The trade surplus from China's processing trade has grown in the period from 2000 to 2005.

Regarded as a global manufacturing centre, foreign investors have been drawn to China's processing plants. Nearly 90 per cent of the country's trade surplus has come from processing trade since 2000, while over 70 per cent of the surplus came from foreign-invested firms.

Zhai said China's trade surplus raised concern last year when it tripled in size.
In 2004 processing trade had a surplus of US$106.3 billion, but this was counteracted by the deficit in other trading forms such as general trade.

But the problem was intensified last year as the surplus topped US$142.5 billion in processing trade and US$35.4 billion in general trade.

Bi Jingquan, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, predicted the country's trade surplus would climb as far as US$120 billion to US$130 billion this year.

The widening trade surplus has increased pressure on the Chinese government to appreciate the renminbi faster in order to curb the gap. In fact, the Chinese currency has gained 1.5 per cent against the US dollar since China revalued it last July.

Statistics from the commerce ministry showed that China's imports and exports totalled US$795.7 billion in the first six months of this year, up 23.4 per cent year-on-year.