China trade growth accelerates beating forecasts

China's trade growth accelerated in April, beating analyst expectations, a positive sign for the country's fragile economic recovery.

Exports surged by 14.7% compared with a year earlier. That is up from 10% in March. Imports also rose by 16.8% up from 14.1%.

The data meant a trade surplus for China, reversing a surprise deficit in March.

However, some analysts raised questions about the accuracy of the data.

"I have no strong conviction whether the data reflect reality," said Zhiwei Zhang, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong.

China had a bigger-than-expected trade surplus in April of $18.2bn, after a surprise deficit of $884m in March.