China to Strive to Reduce Trade Surplus: Premier

China will strive to reduce its "excessively large" trade surplus to ensure the sustained development of both domestic economy and foreign trade, said Premier Wen Jiabao at the just-opened annual full session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) Monday.

The premier made the remarks in the government work report to 2,890 deputies to the NPC, the country's top legislature, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

China recorded a sizzling economic growth of 10.7 percent in 2006, largely powered by strong exports, which rose 33 percent to 86.62 billion U.S. dollars.

Despite a slight 1.2 percentage points down in export growth and 2.4 percentage points up in import growth, China's trade surplus last year expanded to a record 177.5 billion dollars, up 74 percent from the previous record of 101.9 billion dollars set in 2005.

The surplus kept surging 67.3 percent in January from a year ago to 15.88 billion U.S. dollars, a dangerous level to ignite inflation and aggravating already tense trading relations between the world's fourth largest economy and its major trade partners, which press China for further currency appreciation.

Xinhua