The figure was down 1.14 percent year-on-year but up 24.5 percent from 13.4 billion U.S. dollars in March, and it almost doubled the 8.6 billion U.S. dollars posted in February.

    Exports in April rose 21.8 percent over April last year to 118.71 billion U.S. dollars, while imports rose 26.3 percent to 102.03 billion U.S. dollars.

    Trade with the EU, China's largest trade partner, rose 25.4 percent to 129.86 billion U.S. dollars.

    The United States secured its place as the second largest trade partner with China, with a total trade volume of 102.34 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.4 percent.

    Trade with Japan and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations came to 84.69 billion and 75.14 billion U.S. dollars.

    The year-on-year decline reflected weakening external demand caused by the continuing global credit crisis, as well as the government's prudent monetary policy to reduce excessive liquidity, said Zhao Jinping, an economist of the Development Research Center(DRC) of the State Council.

    The continued strengthening of the yuan was a more significant factor in helping narrow the trade gap, said Zhao. The yuan's central parity rate against the U.S. dollar surged 185 basis points to 6.98 on Monday. The currency has risen 4.26 percent against the U.S. dollar so far this year.

    The credit crisis in the United States could affect other countries and demand could fall as the economy fell into recession, affecting Chinese exports, said Zhao.

    Zhang Liqun, an economist from the DRC, said a sharp slowdown in exports could cause serious problems for the overall economy.

    Total trade in the first four months hit 791.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 24.4 percent year-on-year. The four-month trade surplus was 58 billion U.S. dollars, down 5.32 billion U.S. dollars year-on-year.

    Exports in the four-month period were 424.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.5 percent, or 6 percentage points less than a year earlier. Imports were 366.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.9 percent, or 8.8 percentage points more than a year earlier.