Data released by the General Administration of Customs showed that China posted a record trade surplus of $60.6 billion. Exportsrose 15 percent during the first two months of last year from a year earlier, quickening from a 6.1 percent annual rise in the whole of 2014 as demand from major markets improved. Analysts tend to look at the combined trade data for the two months to help smooth out distortions caused by the Lunar New Year Holiday. Exports to the United States, China's largest export market, jumped 48.5 percent from a year earlier. Exports to the Europe Union (the second largest market) rose 44.1 percent year-on-year, but it was also down month-on-month. China's imports tumbled 20.2 percent in the first two months from a year earlier, signaling stubborn weakness in the world's second-largest economy that may require more policy support. A 20.5 percent slide in imports was the sharpest since the global financial crisis. Imports have been weaker than exports, highlighting the need to spur domestic demand amid fears of deflation, as some short-term investors pull out of the country, showed by sustained capital outflows in recent months. The government has set an economic growth target of around 7 percent for this year, below the 7.5 percent goal that was narrowly missed in 2014, but analysts believe more policy support is needed to arrest the slowdown. China plans to run its biggest budget deficit in 2015 since the global financial crisis, stepping up spending as Premier Li Keqiang signaled that the lowest rate of growth in a quarter of a century is the "new normal" for the economy. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project (Source: Reuters) Sunday, 8th March 2015 This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.