BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade in 2009 dropped 13.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.21 trillion U.S. dollars and its trade surplus last year slid 34.2 percent year on year to 196.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to figures released Sunday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

    In breakdown, China's exports in 2009 stood at 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars, down 16 percent from in 2008, and imports reached 1.01 trillion U.S. dollars, down 11.2 percent from a year earlier, said the GAC.

    In December 2009, monthly trade amounted to 243 billion U.S. dollars, which represented a year-on-year increase of 32.7 percent and a month-to-month rise of 16.7 percent.

    Last month, China's exports were worth 130.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 17.7 percent from a year earlier. December's imports hit record monthly high to reach 112.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 55.9 percent from the same period of 2008, according to the GAC.

China's 2009 fiscal revenue expected to surpass $1 trillion: Minister

    BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's 2009 fiscal revenue was estimated at 6.85 trillion yuan (just over 1 trillion U.S. dollars), an increase of 11.7 percent over a year earlier, Finance Minister Xie Xuren said here Sunday.

    Xie also said the budget of public investment in 2010 from the central government was likely to stand at 992.7 billion yuan, up 572.2 billion yuan from the 2008 budget.  Full story

Chinese economy in fast lane, challenges remain in 2010

    BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's economy is forecast to be in the fast lane in 2010, but mounting difficulties are still on the way ahead, leading economists told Xinhua.  Full story


Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis