China's economy grew 10.4% in the third quarter of 2006, compared with the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Oct. 29. The quarterly performance marked a slight slowdown from earlier in the year and brought down growth for the first nine months of 2006 to 10.7%, the bureau said.
Asia's second-largest economy expanded by 10.9% in the first half of the year and 11.3% in the second quarter.
The trade surplus for the first nine months of the year hit $109.85 billion. China exported $691.2 billion worth of goods during the nine months, up 26.5% over the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Imports rose 21.7% to $581.4 billion.
The growth rate in exports slowed by 4.8 percentage points compared with the same period in 2005, while imports increased by 5.7 percentage points.
China's trade surplus for the first nine months of the year has already surpassed the $102 billion recorded for all of 2005.
Total foreign trade for the nine months was up 24.3%.
By the end of September, China's forex reserves stood at $987.9 billion, up $169 billion from a year earlier.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
