BEIJING - China, which runs a trade deficit with its neighbors in Southeast
Asia, moved closer to running a trade surplus with them in the first five
months of this year, with the gap declining more than 28% compared with the
same period in 2007.
The country's trade deficit with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast
Asia Nations (ASEAN) declined US$1.96 billion, or 28.2%, to $4.99 billion in
the five months to May compared with a year earlier, China's General
Administration of Customs said on Sunday. China's imports from the group rose
22.3% to $50.27 billion, while exports rose 32.6% to $45.28 billion as total
trade gained 26.9% to $95.55 billion.
The move towards a surplus with its junior trading partners comes
as China remains under pressure from more industrialized countries, notably the
US and the European Union, to reduce the overall surplus it has with them by
taking measures such as letting its currency, the yuan, appreciate. It also
comes even as wages in China rise, driving up production costs that are already
under pressure from rising inflation.
The average earnings of urban workers rose 18% in the first half this year
compared with 12 months earlier, rising to 12,964 yuan (US$1,878), China's
National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. The per-capita pay for employees
at private entities jumped 19.2% to 12,610 yuan, outpacing the 17% gain to
13,800 yuan in salaries at urban state-owned enterprises. Urban workers'
per-capita salary was 24,932 yuan for all of last year. The consumer price
index, a major gauge of inflation, rose 7.9% in the first half.
China's five-month trade deficit with ASEAN increased 4.7% in the new- and
high-tech sector, to $11.8 billion, as imports in the sector jumped 16.7% to
$25.01 billion while exports gained 30% to $13.21 billion.
China's top five trade partners in ASEAN were Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Indonesia and the Philippines. The five accounted for $84.84 billion, or 88.8%,
of the total China-ASEAN trade volume. The group's other members are Vietnam,
Laos, Myanmar, Brunei and Cambodia.
Most trade fell in the sectors of machinery and electronics. From January to
May, the value of machines and electronics traded between China and ASEAN
members increased by 27.4% to $54.7 billion, or 57.2% of the total.
In the first five months, China bought $2.39 billion worth of oil products from
ASEAN members, up 80.3%, and $310 million worth of fruits, up 47.1%.
China's overall trade surplus with the world fell 20.6% in June compared with a
year earlier, the third successive monthly decline, to $21.4 billion as world
trade slowed and the yuan continued to strengthen against the US dollar. The
Chinese currency has gained about 7.1% this year.
China's economy in the second quarter grew at the slowest pace since 2005,
Bloomberg reported. Gross domestic product, which has cooled for four quarters,
rose 10.1% from a year earlier, down from 10.6% in the first quarter, as
exports weakened and the government curbed lending.
(Asia Pulse/XIC with additional reporting by Asia Times Online.)
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