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BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- China's current account surplus stood at 196.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, the country's foreign exchange regulator said Thursday.
The goods-trade surplus declined 14 percent from the 2015 level to 494.1 billion dollars last year, while the service trade posted a deficit of 244.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 12 percent year on year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement.
The current account surplus last year accounted for 1.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product, said the regulator.
The capital and financial account recorded a surplus of 26.3 billion dollars in 2016, with a deficit of 300 million dollars for the capital account and a deficit of 417 billion dollars for the non-reserve financial account, said SAFE.
Reserve assets, most of which are foreign exchange reserves, decreased by 443.7 billion dollars last year.
In the fourth quarter last year, China's current account surplus stood at 11.8 billion dollars, according to SAFE.
