Chinas trade surplus falls nearly 12 percent in first half- govt

BEIJING (AFP) - China's trade surplus fell nearly 12 percent to 99.04 billion dollars in the first half of this year, as a struggling US economy hit the country's exporters, official data showed Thursday.

The surplus in June alone was 21.35 billion dollars, the customs bureau said in a statement on its website, a decline of 20.7 percent year-on-year.

Total trade in the first half this year was 1.23 trillion dollars, up 25.7 percent from the same period last year.

Imports from January to June grew 30.6 percent to 567.57 billion dollars, the bureau said on its website. Exports rose by 21.9 percent year-on-year to 666.61 billion dollars.

The trade surplus between January and June this year was 13.48 billion dollars less than the same period last year, a decline of 11.98 percent, based on calculations using data posted on the bureau's website.

The Chinese government said last month the nation's trade surplus was likely to shrink in 2008 for the first time in five years on weakening exports, mainly due to the rising local currency and the US economic slowdown.

The yuan has risen steadily from 8.3 to the dollar about three years ago to roughly 6.85 currently since China loosened its peg to the greenback, placing huge pressure on Chinese exporters and making imports cheaper.

"China's export growth eased notably in June, despite remaining in the double-digit territory," Sherman Chan, an economist at Moody's Economy.com, said in a research note.

"Amid softening US consumption and its contagious effects on the rest of the world, it is perhaps not surprising that China's outbound shipments are losing steam."

Chan said the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province on May 12, which left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing, also had an impact on exports.

"The earthquake in May... disrupted economic activity across the country," Chan said.

"Resources have been relocated to emergency relief and production became more domestic-oriented as demand for aid materials surged. The switch in focus to the domestic sector was in part responsible for the slowdown in exports."