China's trade surplus jumps sharply in January (AFP)

[Up2Late]

(Anyone know how much the US Trade Deficit with China has grown in January and year to year yet?)

China's trade surplus jumps sharply in January

13/02/2006 05h42

BEIJING (AFP) - China's trade surplus rose 46.7 percent in January year-on-year to 9.49 billion dollars. Imports for the month totalled 55.5 billion dollars, up 25.4 percent, while exports rose 28.1 percent to 64.9 billion dollars, the Ministry of Commerce reported on its website.

China's trade surplus totalled 6.49 billion dollars in January last year. Overall trade in January this year was valued at 120.49 billion dollars, up 26.8 percent from the same month in 2005. The figures for the first month of 2006 come after China's trade surplus more than tripled last year to a record 101.9 billion dollars as the country maintained robust economic growth of 9.9 percent.

China's growing trade surplus has caused friction with many of its trade partners, most notably the United States, who argue Beijing is keeping the yuan artificially high and giving it an unfair trade advantage on the world stage. China scrapped the yuan's 11-year-old peg against the dollar in July last year. It now links the yuan to a basket of currencies.

The move has seen the value of the yuan appreciate from about 8.28 to the dollar to 8.04 yuan on Friday last week. Although Friday's close was a post-revaluation high, the United States and others argue restrictions on the currency need to be loosened further.

(more at link below)

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060213053933.gv3gwv3q.html>

[dubyaD40web]

1. It's been a long time..

since I heard the words "trade & surplus" in the same sentence.

[Up2Late]

2. I'm just kind of surprised that the WH hasn't yet found a way...

...to spin the "New Record!" (trade deficit) as a good thing.

They ARE creating New Jobs!, just not in THIS country.