IN BRIEF (Page 10)

Surplus declines

China's current-account surplus fell 35 percent last year as exports accounted for a smaller percentage of the world's fastest-growing major economy, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.

The current-account surplus, the broadest measure of trade, narrowed to $284.1 billion from a year earlier, the foreign-exchange regulator said in a statement on Friday. China's capital and financial account surplus, which tracks investment flows, was $109.1 billion in 2009, the regulator said, without giving a comparative figure.