China's March Trade Surplus Falls Sharply

China has reported an unexpectedly low trade surplus for March, falling 38-percent from a year earlier. China's General Administration of Customs Tuesday reported last month's trade surplus was six-point-nine billion dollars, well below forecasts of 20 billion dollars. February's trade surplus was a near-record 23-point-eight billion dollars.

Despite the lower March figures, China's trade surplus for the first quarter of 2007 has doubled from the same period last year - to around 46-billion dollars.

Exports in March rose nearly seven percent to around 83-billion dollars. However, they were outpaced by imports, which climbed around 15-percent to 76-point-six billion dollars.

中国3月份贸易顺差出乎意料地比去年同期下降了38%。中国海关总署星期二公布，上个月贸易顺差总额为69亿美元，比预计的200亿美元要低很多。2月贸易顺差为238亿美元，接近历史记录。

尽管3月贸易顺差大幅收窄，中国2007年第一季度的贸易顺差总额仍达到去年同期的两倍，总计460亿美元左右。

3月出口增长将近7%，总额为830亿美元左右。不过，进口增长额超过出口，增幅达15%，为766亿美元 。