China's trade surplus reached US$99.03 billion in the first half of this year, down 11.8 percent from the same period last year, the General Administration of Customs said on Thursday.

Exports increased 21.9 percent year-on-year to US$666.6 billion, while imports rose 30.6 percent to US$567.57 billion.

The total trade volume in the first six months stood at US$1,234.17 billion, a year-on-year rise of 25.7 percent.

Exports in June alone rose 17.6 percent from June last year to US$121.53 billion, while imports shot up 31 percent to US$100.18 billion.

The June export growth further slowed down from May by 10.5 percentage points, and the import growth was 9 percentage points lower.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2008)