Nation boosts efforts to tackle trade surplus

BEIJING - China will increase efforts to expand imports this year to help balance trade, and to maintain the surplus-deficit ratio at below 3 percent of GDP on the nation's current account, said the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

The General Administration of Customs said the trade surplus in January narrowed by 53.5 percent to $6.46 billion, with imports growing faster than exports.

Yao Jian, a ministry spokesman, said the government will take measures to further balance trade. "Promoting imports will be an important policy this year, and more and more people will realize the significance of imports in spurring economic growth and transforming the economic structure," he said.