BEIJING, Nov 11 (Reuters) - China logged a record trade surplus of $35.24 billion in October, easily beating the previous record of $29.3 billion in September, the customs administration said on Tuesday.
Exports rose 19.2 percent in October from a year earlier, while imports were up 15.6 percent, customs said on its website.
Economists had expected a $31.3 billion surplus based on an 18.8 percent rise in exports from a year earlier and a 19.0 percent increase in imports. [ID:nPEK57126]
The surplus for the first 10 months was $215.99 billion.
Trade, in billions of dollars:
Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Exp 128.3 136.4 134.9 136.7 121.5 120.5 118.7 109.0 Imp 93.1 107.1 106.2 111.4 100.2 100.3 102.0 95.6 Bal 35.2 29.3 28.7 25.3 21.4 20.2 16.7 13.4
Export and import growth (yr/yr % change):
Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Exp 19.2 21.5 21.1 26.9 17.6 28.1 21.8 30.6 Imp 15.6 21.3 23.1 33.7 31.0 40.0 26.3 24.6
Rolling 12-month surplus, in billions of dollars:
Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Bal 265.0 257.3 251.9 248.7 249.1 254.7 256.9 257.1 (Reporting by Zhou Xin; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Ken Wills)