China Vows to Work to Trim Trade Surplus - New York Times
China Vows to Work to Trim Trade Surplus - New York TimesChina Vows to Work to Trim Trade Surplus
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 28, 2005
Filed at 7:41 a.m. ET
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China plans to boost imports and promote more investment overseas, the government says, vowing to do more to counter a surging trade surplus and calm friction with trading partners.
The pledge came in a report by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's foreign exchange regulator, carried by state media Monday.
China's current account surplus, which includes merchandise trade and international remittances, soared 800 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, to $67.3 billion, SAFE said in its report on the country's balance of payments. The report, released Sunday, was also posted on SAFE's Web site.
China's merchandise trade surplus, meanwhile, ballooned by 823 percent in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier to $54.2 billion, it said. That gap, measuring the amount by which exports exceed imports, is expected to surpass $100 billion this year.
Not all major trading partners run deficits with China, which imports a large share of the raw materials and components used to produce its exports.
However, the trade surplus with the United States has been a source of recurrent friction. It hit a record $162 billion in 2004 and is expected to pass $200 billion this year -- again a record for a U.S. deficit with any single country.
In one major deal, announced during a recent visit to Beijing by President Bush, China signed a deal to buy 70 Boeing 737 airliners with a catalog value of $4 billion. The government said it will soon agree to purchase 80 more.
The SAFE report said the government plans to further boost imports of strategically important raw resources, advanced technologies and equipment and reduce exports of highly polluting and energy-consuming products, SAFE said. It did not give details on how it would do that.
China's foreign exchange reserves rose to $711 billion by the end of June, a trend that is constraining regulators' economic policy options and helping push prices for assets such as real estate beyond reasonable levels, it said.
By the end of September, China's foreign exchange reserves had climbed to $769 billion, up 50 percent from a year earlier.
The SAFE report said the government would further encourage Chinese companies to invest more overseas, part of what Beijing has dubbed its ''going out'' policy.
Such investments rose 248 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, to $4.1 billion, SAFE said. Companies from affluent areas in eastern China, such as Beijing and Shanghai and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shandong provinces, accounted for 96 percent of the total, the report said.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 28, 2005
Filed at 7:41 a.m. ET
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China plans to boost imports and promote more investment overseas, the government says, vowing to do more to counter a surging trade surplus and calm friction with trading partners.
The pledge came in a report by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's foreign exchange regulator, carried by state media Monday.
China's current account surplus, which includes merchandise trade and international remittances, soared 800 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year, to $67.3 billion, SAFE said in its report on the country's balance of payments. The report, released Sunday, was also posted on SAFE's Web site.
China's merchandise trade surplus, meanwhile, ballooned by 823 percent in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier to $54.2 billion, it said. That gap, measuring the amount by which exports exceed imports, is expected to surpass $100 billion this year.
Not all major trading partners run deficits with China, which imports a large share of the raw materials and components used to produce its exports.
However, the trade surplus with the United States has been a source of recurrent friction. It hit a record $162 billion in 2004 and is expected to pass $200 billion this year -- again a record for a U.S. deficit with any single country.
In one major deal, announced during a recent visit to Beijing by President Bush, China signed a deal to buy 70 Boeing 737 airliners with a catalog value of $4 billion. The government said it will soon agree to purchase 80 more.
The SAFE report said the government plans to further boost imports of strategically important raw resources, advanced technologies and equipment and reduce exports of highly polluting and energy-consuming products, SAFE said. It did not give details on how it would do that.
China's foreign exchange reserves rose to $711 billion by the end of June, a trend that is constraining regulators' economic policy options and helping push prices for assets such as real estate beyond reasonable levels, it said.
By the end of September, China's foreign exchange reserves had climbed to $769 billion, up 50 percent from a year earlier.
The SAFE report said the government would further encourage Chinese companies to invest more overseas, part of what Beijing has dubbed its ''going out'' policy.
Such investments rose 248 percent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, to $4.1 billion, SAFE said. Companies from affluent areas in eastern China, such as Beijing and Shanghai and Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shandong provinces, accounted for 96 percent of the total, the report said.
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