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China's exports rose 33 percent to a record in December, widening the trade surplus to an all-time high, as consumers in the United States, Europe and Japan bought more mainland-made clothes, mobile phones and computers.

Shipments reached US$63.8 billion (HK$497.6 billion) and the trade gap amounted to US$11.1 billion, after allowing for imports of US$52.7 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said on its Web site. Imports, which increased 25 percent from a year earlier, were also the highest ever.

``The global growth story is strong, the Asian growth story is strong and the China growth story is very strong,'' Tim Condon, head of Asian Financial Markets Research at ING Groep in Singapore, said. ``All these factors account for the strength in the data.''

Surging exports are helping drive China's growth as the government restricts lending and raises interest rates to cool runaway investment in industries including autos, steel and cement.

Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said on December 25 exports probably accounted for 30 percent of gross domestic product last year.

China is now the world's third-largest trading nation and Shanghai last year overtook Rotterdam as the No1 port in terms of cargo throughput, handling 382 million tonnes.

For the whole of last year, China's exports rose 35 percent to US$593.4 billion and imports gained 36 percent to US$561.4 billion, Tuesday's report showed.

The nation's trade surplus widened to US$32 billion last year, the commerce ministry said. That is the biggest gap since 1998's record US$43.6 billion surplus and may fuel calls for China to allow its currency to appreciate.

The US has been pressing China to change the yuan's decade-old peg of about 8.3 to the US dollar, saying the fixed rate depresses the yuan's value, giving mainland manufacturers an unfair advantage by making their goods cheaper abroad. President Hu Jintao said on November 20 that China will allow for a yuan revaluation only when the economy is strong enough to withstand disruptions that may occur.

ABN Amro Holding, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America all predict China will loosen the yuan's peg by mid-2005. Condon said he does not expect a revaluation to hurt the nation's exports.

``It's unlikely they will be able to do anything on the exchange rate that would be sufficient to do anything to affect export growth,'' he said.