China exports up 17.7pc in December

BEIJING: China’’s exports rose 17.7 percent in December to hit a monthly high for 2009, state television said on Sunday, cementing the Asian power’’s new status as the world’’s biggest exporter.

Exports hit 130.7 billion dollars during the month, bringing the full-year export figure to 1.20 trillion dollars, China Central Television said quoting the national customs bureau.

According to CCTV, the nation’’s politically sensitive trade surplus hit 18.4 billion dollars for the month of December, while the full-year figure came to 195 billion dollars.

Data out of Germany last week showed that China overtook Europe’’s biggest economy in November to become the world’’s top exporting nation.