Weaker demand hits trade surplus

Figure reduced by 15% to $160b as export outlook cited as severe

BEIJING - China's trade surplus narrowed to $160 billion in 2011, from a year earlier, as export demand weakened in the United States and Europe, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

And the outlook for exports in 2012 is "severe" but foreign trade will be "more balanced" with measures to boost imports, officials from the ministry said during the annual National Commerce Work Conference in Beijing.