BEIJING, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's macro-economic moves to balance foreign trade were paying off as the country's trade surplus growth had slowed by September, Chinese customs officials said on Monday.

    China's trade surplus, standing at 185.65 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months, slowed by 2.1 percentage points compared with the growth registered in the first eight months, according to the customs officials, without revealing the exact figure for the surplus growth in first nine months.

    The latest figures released by the State Administration of Customs also showed China's trade volume totaled 1.57 trillion dollars for the first nine months, up 23.5 percent on last year, or a drop of 0.5 percentage points over that for the first eight months.

    The September trade surplus also came lower at 23.9 billion dollars, down from 24.98 billion in August and a record 26.91 billion dollars in June.

    The country exported 878.24 billion dollars of goods in the first nine months, representing a growth of 27.1 percent from a year earlier, or a slowdown of 0.6 percentage points over that for the first eight months.

    China has imposed export tariffs, removed or cut tax rebates on exports and expanded the category of products of processed trade listed as "discouraged" since June, in a bid to lower the surplus.

    However, the trade surplus figure in the first three quarters has already surpassed that for the whole of 2006, which soared 74.2 percent to a record 177.47 billion dollars.

    China's surplus growth will slow down with the implementation of a series of tightening measures, but it would take time for the measures to yield results, Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng previously said.

    The latest figures from the Chinese customs also said China exported 497.2 billion dollars worth of machinery and electronic products during the first three quarters, up 28 percent year on year, while its imports totaled 360.51 billion dollars, up 16.1 percent.

    The growth of exports and imports of machinery and electronic products was in line with that for the first eight months.

    Machinery and electronic products continued to serve as the country's most important foreign trade products, accounting for 56.6 percent of total exports.

    Meanwhile, latest figures showed the European Union remained China's largest trade partner with bilateral trade at 256.13 billion dollars by September, while the United Stated and Japan followed with bilateral trade volume at 221.36 billion dollars and 171.94 billion dollars respectively.

    China's trade volumes with the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the Republic of Korea were all above 100 billion dollars in the first nine months.