text: China's exports climbed again in October due to sluggish domestic demand, faster payment of export tax rebates and an expansion of credit to exporters, newspapers and a government economist said on Wednesday.
  The upturn in exports was expected to continue through the first half of 1997, said Wang Jian, a researcher with the cabinet's State Planning Commission.
  Exports rose for the fourth consecutive month in October, jumping 23.3 percent to $15.22 billion from a year ago, said the International Business Daily, a newspaper published by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.
  The healthy exports performance helped the nation register its biggest monthly trade surplus of the year. The surplus stood at $3.91 billion in October compared with $3.2 billion in September, the newspaper said.
  "This kind of rebound in exports ... is estimated to last until the first half of next year," Wang told Reuters in a telephone interview.
  Wang attributed the upturn to slow domestic demand, forcing manufacturers to look to overseas markets.
  Also, domestic enterprises had adjusted to a cut in government-paid export tax rebates, he said. The government slashed the rebate on exports of industrial products to 9.0 percent from 14.0 percent on January 1, 1996.
  The International Business Daily said exports rebounded because the government sped up the payment of export tax rebates and expanded credit to exporters.
  Exports slumped in the first six months of 1996, dented by rising wages and the relative strength of the currency, the renminbi.
  A slowdown in government payments of tax rebates to exporters had also discouraged many firms from exporting their goods earlier in the year. Many of those firms focused sales on the domestic market instead.
  However, the government has been stepping up payment of export rebates to try to revive exports.
  Imports inched up a year-on-year three percent to $11.31 billion in October, the Business Daily said.
  The import data showed that the impact of this year's tariff cuts has gradually weakened, it said.
  In the first 10 months of this year, China's exports totalled $119.22 billion, mostly unchanged from the same 1995 period, the newspaper said. But imports added up to $107.21 billion, a rise of 5.5 percent from the year-ago period.
  The latest figures brought the total trade surplus for the January-to-October period to $12.01 billion, it said.
  Japan, the United States and Europe remained China's largest export markets.
  China's exports to Japan rose a year-on-year 8.6 percent to $24.5 billion in the first 10 months of this year, the daily said. Exports to the United States and Europe increased 5.5 percent and 4.5 percent to $21.3 billion and $18.9 billion respectively.
  Machinery and electronic exports totalled $38 billion in the first 10 months, accounting for one-third of total exports and up 11 percent from the year-ago period, the newspaper said.
  Exports of toys, furniture, shoes, crude oil and plastic products increased in the first 10 months. But exports of textile yarn and related products, garment, steel and aquatic products all fell, it said.
  Imports by foreign-funded enterprises in the first 10 months soared a year-on-year 23 percent to $105.0 billion.
  Car imports plunged 39 percent year-on-year between January and October, the newspaper said. It did not elaborate.
  