China’s trade surplus reached an 18- month high as exports rose to a record and import gains slowed, adding pressure on officials to allow faster appreciation of the yuan and signaling a diminished contribution to global growth.
The gap surged 170 percent from a year earlier to $28.7 billion, the customs bureau said, exceeding the forecasts of all 29 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Exports increased 38.1 percent to $145.5 billion and imports advanced 22.7 percent to $116.8 billion, the bureau said on its website today.
Premier Wen Jiabao’s government has limited the yuan’s rise to less than 1 percent since ending a two-year peg to the dollar, and today’s report may stoke criticism by U.S. lawmakers three months before mid-term elections. The slowest pace of import growth in nine months added to evidence of a moderation in China’s expansion and contributed to a slide in Asian stocks.
