China's Trade Surplus at $23.37 Billion in November

Posted 07 December 2006 @ 04:58 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

BEIJING (AP) - China's trade surplus was 23.37 billion dollars in November, a slight fall from the previous month but still near record highs. A brief Xinhua news agency report gave no other figures other than to compare it with the surplus in October, which was a record 23.83 billion dollars.

The information was not immediately available on the General Administration of Customs' website. Based on previous data, the accumulated surplus for this year is 156.99 billion dollars, placing it on track to outstrip last year's record figure by well over 50 percent and further fuel tensions with China's trade partners.

China's trade surplus last year was 101.9 billion dollars, which was more than triple the 2004 total. The United States has led international criticism over China's managing of its trade, particularly over the way Beijing keeps a tight leash on its currency, the yuan.

China's critics say the yuan is being kept drastically undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage by being able to sell their products on the world stage more cheaply. "Of course it will lead to more criticism from the United States," said Song Guoqing, an economist at Beijing University.

"But China cannot just consider the US criticism and must focus on its own overall economic balance." Song said the November surplus figure was not surprising and that another slight fall could be expected in December.

"Due to seasonal factors, some exports like food will usually decrease in the second half of the year while imports usually wont be affected by that," he said. "I think the surplus will continue to go down a little in the last month of the year."