China’s imports and exports rose by 85.5 per cent and 21 per cent respectively in January over last year, although economists warned against reading too much into the figures, citing the low base comparison in January 2009 and the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday. The holiday fell in February of 2010, which effectively means there was one more working week in January of this year compared to last year, Reuters reported.

China’s trade surplus narrowed to US$14.17 billion from US$18.44 billion in December. However, viewed on a month-on-month basis, as opposed to the standard year-on-year calculations, China’s exports actually declined 16.3 per cent in January while imports fell by 15.1 per cent.