Beijing - China's huge trade surplus fell by almost 12 per cent in the first six months of this year, affected by economic policies and rising global commodity prices, the government said on Thursday.

Exports grew 21.9 per cent year-on-year to 667 billion dollars, but were outpaced by a jump of 30.6 per cent in imports, which were valued at 568 billion dollars from January to June, according to Chinese customs figures.

The trade surplus dropped to 99 billion dollars, down 11.8 per cent from the first half of 2007.

"The trade surplus decline in the first half was broadly in line with market expectation," Li Jian, an economist with the Ministry of Commerce, told the official Xinhua news agency.

The drop was "partly a result of China's policies to tame the surplus, but was also in part because of the rising prices of energy and resources," the agency said.

The global slowdown sparked by the crisis over US sub-prime mortgage lending had "also played a negative part," it said.

"The accelerated appreciation of the yuan, fund shortages, continued price rises of raw materials, and labour cost increases have forced more and more enterprises into financial loss or bankruptcy," Li was quoted as saying.

Bilateral trade with India soared by 69 per cent from January to June to reach a value of 29 billion dollars, the agency said.

Bilateral trade with the European Union and the United States, China's two biggest trading partners, rose by 28 per cent to
202 billion dollars and 13 per cent to 158 billion dollars, respectively.

China's trade surplus with United States crept up another 2 per cent, hitting 75.3 billion dollars in the first half of the year. (dpa)