Surpassing expectations and proving scepticism unfounded, China’s foreign trade volume grew by 15.7 per cent year-on-year in April, higher than the 12.1 per cent increase in March.

The General Administration of Customs (GAC) said in a statement that the total exports and imports stood at 2.23 trillion yuan ($355.96 billion) last month registering $18.16 billion surplus.

China’s foreign trade volume grew by 15.7 percent year on year in April, faster than the 12.1 percent increase in March.

Exports rose 14.7 per cent year-on-year to 1.17 trillion yuan, while imports surged 16.8 per cent to 1.06 trillion yuan, the data showed.

China saw a trade surplus of 114.53 billion yuan in April, narrowing 1.7 per cent from a year earlier.

In the first four months of the year, total foreign trade expanded 14 per cent from a year ago to 8.36 trillion yuan, while trade surplus stood at 383.46 billion yuan ($18.16 billion).

The GAC started using the yuan, besides the US dollar, to calculate its trade figures from February in an effort to promote the international use of the Chinese currency, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The positive trade trend was in contrast to the decline of China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector to 50.6 per cent in April from 50.9 per cent in March, raising concerns over continued slow down of the world’s second largest economy.

Also, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell to 7.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the 7.9 per cent growth in the last quarter of 2012, belying expectations of surge in the growth due to excessive liquidity and reforms by new leadership.

China’s total trade grew just 6.2 per cent last year, well below the official target of about 10 per cent.

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