China's trade surplus rose to a record $14.61 billion in July, exceeding the previous peak of $14.5 billion in June, the official Shanghai Securities News said on Wednesday. Exports hit $80.34 billion in July, up 22.6 percent from a year earlier, while imports rose 19.7 percent to $65.72 billion, the newspaper quoted a source familiar with the figures as saying.
It said the customs office would announce the data on Wednesday or Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a surplus of $14.5 billion based on export growth of 23.6 percent and import growth of 20.8 percent. If confirmed, the figure would take China's 12-month rolling trade surplus to $126.8 billion from $122.6 billion in June.
The surplus trebled in calendar year 2005 to $102 billion and the State Information Centre, a key government think-tank, said it is likely to swell further to $146 billion this year. "We expect China's foreign trade will tend to be more balanced in the second half of 2006," the think-tank said in a research report published in the newspaper. It forecast China's exports to grow 24 percent in all of 2006, with imports rising 21 percent.