BEIJING - China's current account surplus fell 8 percent year-on-year to $124.2 billion in the first half, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said on Thursday.
The current account surplus accounted for 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half, down 1.3 percentage points from a year ago, SAFE said.
The decline in the current account in China's first half was mainly due to a weak first quarter, while the country's current account surplus rose 30 percent from a year earlier to $70.5 billion in the second quarter, according to SAFE.
China's first quarter current account surplus fell 32 percent from the same period last year to $53.6 billion, according to the foreign exchange regulator's revised data in July.
With a financial and capital account surplus of $11.5 billion in the second quarter, China's financial and capital account surplus reached $53.9 billion for the first half of 2010, SAFE said.
International reserve assets increased 8 percent from a year ago to $178 billion in the first half, it said.
