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