But import values last month still increased 19.1 per cent to reach US$1.91 billion, compared with that of last April, the statistics showed.

According to a customs analyst, although it is clear that the export and trade surplus have started to decrease since last month and that this trend might continue in the future, China's high speed economic development should provide a strong support for foreign trade, so it is possible that the country will maintain a 10-per cent growth rate in foreign trade for the whole year.

However, senior economy expert Wang Yanchun said that the country's foreign trade will not see a high-speed increase this year. The negative effect of a continually gloomy US economy and the worldwide economic slowdown may hinder the second quarter, he predicted.

According to Long Guoqiang, a senior expert on foreign trade with the Development Research Centre under the State Council, it is possible to see a trade deficit in certain months of this year, but it is impossible to see a trade deficit for the whole year.

"Compared with the trade surplus of 2000, the surplus will shrink sharply this year," Long warned. He hinted that it is too hard for foreign trade to push growth of gross domestic product 2 percentage points forward.

But he was very sure that by expanding demand in the domestic market, China can still achieve economic growth of 7 per cent this year.

In order to further expand demand in the domestic market, the central government and most enterprises enhanced their capital investment last month.

According to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics, capital investment reached 167.6 billion yuan (US$20 billion), an increase of over 18 per cent compared with that of last year. Investment in real estate made up about 22.8 per cent of all capital investment, and investment in technology and equipment upgrading accounted for 24.8 per cent of total investment.

Investment in both fields has increased sharply.

The sales value of commodities in April reached 282.1 billion yuan (US$34.1 billion), 9.7 per cent higher than that of last year. The increase has proved that government measures to expand domestic demand have worked, according to Gao Qian, an analyst at Huaxia Securities.