'China's foreign trade faces grim situation'

Speaking on the sidelines of the Communist Party Congress being held here to select new leaders and new policies, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said "trade situation will be relatively grim in the next few months and there will be many difficulties next year".

His comments came even as China's exports showed positive growth with 11.6 percent increase in October as against the same period of last year, while imports climbed 2.4 percent year on year.

The October trade surplus widened to USD 31.99 billion from USD 27.67 billion USD in September and USD 26.66 billion USD in August.

In the first ten months, the country's foreign trade volume expanded 6.3 percent from the same period of last year, the administration said.

China has targeted a 10 percent growth in total foreign trade this year, a figure which officials admit is going to be hard to achieve.

China's trade volume with the European Union, its largest trade partner, fell three percent to USD 452.83 billion in the first ten months while that with the US, the second-largest trade partner, climbed 9.1 percent to USD 396.09 billion.

Trade with Japan declined 2.1 percent from one year earlier to USD 275.47 billion during the January-October period.

China's GDP slid to 7.4 percent in Q4, falling below the 7.5 percent

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