China reported a record monthly trade surplus of US$14.5 billion in June and experts expect the trend to continue.

The country's exports reached US$81.3 billion last month, up 23.3 per cent year-on-year, while imports stood at US$66.8 billion, up 18.9 per cent from the previous year, according to statistics published by the Ministry of Commerce. The trade surplus continued to widen from US$13 billion in May.

The trade surplus in the first half of this year totalled US$61.5 billion, reflecting a sharp increase of 54.9 per cent from a year ago.

Although China's central government vowed to keep its foreign trade balanced, some trade experts did not expect conditions to change in the near future.

"China is likely to maintain the high-volume trade surplus over a rather long course if basic policies of the countries are unchanged and even if the revaluation of the renminbi is taken into consideration," said Zhai Zhihong, a director with the statistics bureau.

He said China's trade surplus, which tripled to a record US$102 billion in 2005, may top US$100 billion again this year as overseas companies build export factories in China.

Zhai attributed the surplus to processing trade instead of to weak domestic demand, recognized by some as the major cause of the trade surplus.

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