China on Wednesday reported a 10 per cent year-on-year rise in exports last month, which state media said was another sign that government policies were reversing a slowdown in economic growth.
Imports also jumped by 14.1 per cent in March, leaving China with a monthly trade deficit of 880 million dollars, down from a surplus of 15.25 billion dollars in February, according to Chinese customs data.
Growth since January showed that government policies introduced last year to promote flagging trade had started to take effect, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Total trade rose 13.4 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, compared with 6.2 per cent full-year growth in 2012, the General Administration of Customs said.
First-quarter exports were driven by recovering demand from the United States and emerging markets, it said.
China’s annual economic growth slipped from 9.3 per cent in 2011 to 7.8 per cent last year, the slowest expansion since 1999.
The government set targets of 8 per cent for trade growth and 7.5 per cent for GDP growth this year as it aims to rebalance the world’s second-largest economy away from its long reliance on exports and investment in infrastructure.