China foreign trade growth rebounds in May

BEIJING - China's foreign trade rose 14.1 percent year on year to $343.58 billion in May, rebounding from 2.7 percent registered in April, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Sunday.

The figure renewed the monthly trade record set in November 2011, when foreign trade amounted to $334.11 billion, the GAC said.

Both imports and exports reached record high in May, with exports up 15.3 percent from a year earlier to $181.14 billion, while imports up 12.7 percent to $162.44 billion.

In May, trade surplus hit $18.7 billion, slightly higher than $18.42 billion in April.

For the first five months of the year, foreign trade went up 7.7 percent year on year to $1.51 trillion, with exports and imports up 8.7 percent and 6.7 percent to $774.4 billion and$736.49 billion, respectively.

China saw trade surplus of $37.91 billion during the January-May period, the GAC said.

The government has targeted an annual rise of around 10 percent in foreign trade this year in the wake of a lackluster external market. Foreign trade grew 22.5 percent year on year last year.