China's trade surplus continues to grow
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-11 08:41 The trade surplus from China's processing trade has grown in the period from
2000 to 2005.
Regarded as a global manufacturing centre, foreign
investors have been drawn to China's processing plants. Nearly 90 per cent of
the country's trade surplus has come from processing trade since 2000, while
over 70 per cent of the surplus came from foreign-invested firms.
Zhai
said China's trade surplus raised concern last year when it tripled in
size.
In 2004 processing trade had a surplus of US$106.3 billion, but this
was counteracted by the deficit in other trading forms such as general
trade.
But the problem was intensified last year as the surplus topped
US$142.5 billion in processing trade and US$35.4 billion in general
trade.
Bi Jingquan, an official with the National Development and Reform
Commission, predicted the country's trade surplus would climb as far as US$120
billion to US$130 billion this year.
The widening trade surplus has
increased pressure on the Chinese government to appreciate the renminbi faster
in order to curb the gap. In fact, the Chinese currency has gained 1.5 per cent
against the US dollar since China revalued it last July.
Statistics from
the commerce ministry showed that China's imports and exports totalled US$795.7
billion in the first six months of this year, up 23.4 per cent
year-on-year.
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