China Trade Surplus January 2008

China's trade surplus jumped 23 percent in January (as compared with January 2007) to $19.5 billion, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported today. This is bound to stoke up the continuing controversy about the ongoing surplus, and doesn't indicate that the Chinese economy has been slowing significantly at this point. China is trying to slow growth in its surplus to prevent inflows of cash from export sales from stoking inflation that's close to an 11-year high.

Exports rose 26.7 percent from a year earlier, the biggest increase in six months, to $109.7 billion, while imports increased 27.6 percent, the largest gain in almost two years, to $90.2 billion.

But compared to previous months, the surplus shrank. It was the first time since April 2007 that China reported a monthly trade gap below $20 billion. In December, it totaled $22.7 billion, and in October it reached an monthly record of $27 billion.