BEIJING, Jan 11: China's trade surplus surged nearly 50 per cent last year to surpass 260 billion dollars, official data showed on Friday, a stunning rise certain to see more global pressure for Chinese currency reform.

A surplus of 22.69 billion dollars in December lifted the 12-month figure to 262.2 billion dollars, up 47.7 per cent from 2006, the customs administration said.

The surplus has climbed more than 10-fold since 2003, stoking concerns among China's major trading partners about the Asian nation's export juggernaut.

EU officials are talking about it in each visit to China. It is a serious problem,” said Ma Qing, a Beijing-based economist with CEB Monitor Group.

US, European and other critics complain that China keeps its currency, the yuan, artificially weak, which they argue gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.

China has responded by allowing the yuan to appreciate gradually, and slightly faster in recent weeks, but it has refused to scrap its controls completely.

The data showed exports rose 25.7 per cent year-on-year to hit 1.218 trillion dollars in 2007, providing more fuel for critics who say the yuan is still too weak. Imports climbed by 20.8 per cent to reach 955.8 billion dollars.

Meanwhile state media said the country's foreign exchange reserve, already the world's biggest, had soared to 1.53 trillion dollars by the end of 2007, due mainly to the giant trade surplus.

On Friday, the yuan closed at another record high of 7.262 yuan to the dollar, which marked an appreciation of about 12 per cent since the currency's peg to the greenback was loosened in July 2005. The yuan is likely to appreciate by around eight to 10 percent against the dollar in 2008, according to Qiu Qingdong, a Beijing-based economist with Guodu Securities, whose estimate was similar to those given by other analysts.—AFP