China expects trade surplus of $168 billion for 2006

The Chinese trade surplus will swell by 65 percent to a record $168 billion this year, the Chinese customs bureau said Thursday, less than a week before the U.S. Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, travels to Beijing to discuss ways to reduce the gap.

Full-year exports will rise 27 percent to $963 billion and imports will climb 20 percent to $795 billion, the bureau said on its Web site. The trade surplus through November reached $157 billion.

China's ballooning trade surplus has flooded its economy with cash and sparked calls from the United States and Europe for Beijing to let its currency rise faster and to crack down on counterfeiting.

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