BEIJING, May 12 (Reuters) - China's exports fell 22.6 percent in April from a year earlier, while imports fell 23.0 percent, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, quoting the General Administration of Customs.
The resulting trade surplus for the month was $12.9 billion, compared with $18.56 billion in March and $4.84 billion in February, according to calculations based on the cumulative January-April surplus of $75.43 billion cited by Xinhua.
Economists had expected a $17.4 billion surplus based on an 18 percent fall in exports and a 22 percent drop in imports from year-earlier levels. [ID:nPEK194210]
The trade surplus in April 2008 was $16.7 billion. It hit a record monthly high of $40.1 billion in November 2008.
It was the sixth consecutive monthly decline in both exports and imports.
Adjusted for the number of working days in April, Xinhua said exports rose 6.9 percent from March while imports rose 15.1 percent. (Reporting by Zhou Xin and Alan Wheatley; editing by Ken Wills)