China targets 10% growth in foreign trade: report

China aims to grow its foreign trade by around 10% this year, a much slower pace from 2011, as the country faces a "grim situation" in boosting its exports, the Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday, quoting an official with the country's top economic planner.

"We expect more difficulties in foreign trade and the export situation will be grim in 2012, especially in the first half of the year," Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission said at a forum.

The country's customs agency said this week that China's exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December, fresh evidence of cooling domestic and global economic conditions that could push Beijing towards a more pro-growth policy stance.

The total value of China's imports and exports finished 2011 at an all-time high of $3.6 trillion. But the overall trade surplus shrank to a three-year low of $155 billion from 2010's $183.1 billion.