By Shangguan Zhoudong (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-11 16:17

China's August trade surplus reached US$24.97 billion, up from US$18.8 billion a year earlier, or nearly 33 percent year on year, according to figures released by the General Administration of Customs today on its Website.

In the first eight months of this year, the trade surplus surged 70.9 percent to US$161.76 billion.

The trade surplus for the first eight months of last year was US$94.65 billion.

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Exports rose 22.7 percent in August from a year earlier to US$111.36 billion and imports climbed 20.1 percent to US$86.8 billion, figures from the customs showed.

In the first eight months of this year, exports rose 27.7 percent over the same period a year earlier to US$765.74 billion and imports increased by 19.6 percent to US$603.98 billion.

In terms of export value, major products exported involve high-tech products, machinery and electronic products, clothing, textile products and automatic data processing equipment.

Major import products include high-tech products, machinery and electronic products, crude oil, steel products, vehicles and chassis.

The European Union, the United States, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Japan were the top four destinations for exports in August, figures from the Website indicated.

As for imports, Japan, European Union, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), China's Taiwan Province, South Korea and the US were the nation's top six import locations for August.

The huge surplus has aggravated such problems as trade conflicts with other countries and pressures on China to revalue the renminbi, as well as excessive liquidity at home.

So the government eliminated or cut tax rebates for more than 2,800 export items from July 1 this year, in the boldest move yet to rein in exports since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The affected items account for 37 percent of all export products.