China February trade surplus hits record 370.5bn yuan

China's monthly trade surplus hit 370.5 billion yuan (around $59 billion) in February, the government said Sunday, a new record for the world's second-largest economy.
Exports leapt 48.9 percent year-on-year to 1.04 trillion yuan, Customs said on its website, while imports fell 20.1 percent to 666.1 billion yuan.
The country's trade surplus, long a source of tensions with its trading partners, rose above a previous all-time monthly high of 366.9 billion yuan recorded in January.
It attributed the surge to a rise in Chinese exporters' shipments ahead of the Lunar New Year, which fell on February 19 this year.
"Affected by the Spring Festival factors, export companies in the country again rushed to export ahead of the holiday and only resumed working after it," the statement said.
The lunar new year fell on January 31 in 2014, followed by a week-long national holiday, leading to a low comparison base for this February.
For the first two months of the year, China's trade surplus totalled 737.4 billion yuan, customs said in a statement.