Improving trade form

HANOI: China pledged to improve its global trade imbalance, further open its service sector, enhance intellectual property rights protection and raise the economy’s “overall level of openness”. Chinese President Hu Jintao promised to “deepen” its economic reforms in a speech to the APEC CEO forum on the eve of the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit on Saturday hosted by Vietnam. — DPA

Trade surplus in EU

BRUSSELS: The eurozone’s trade balance bounced back to a 2.0-billion-euro ($2.6 billion) surplus in September after posting a 5.4-billion-euro deficit the previous month, official data showed on Friday. The trade surplus in September last year in the 12 states that use the single European currency was 1.3 billion euros. The picture for the 25-nation European Union as a whole was much less rosy, with initial estimates showing a deficit of 13.4 billion euros.—AFP