Economists believe that China's exports growth rate will be weaker in July than in the first half of the year, and the following months are seen as challenging in terms of foreign trade for the world's second-largest economy.

In the first half of the year, exports increased 9.2 percent compared with the first half of 2011.

Li Jian, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Commerce, said that he is not optimistic and that foreign trade in the second half of the year will not improve significantly, which means the 10 percent growth goal set earlier this year is hard to achieve.

The trade surplus is expected to further expand, but will remain within a "relatively reasonable scope", according to Li.

China's exports increased 6.3 percent year-on-year in June, while imports increased 11.3 percent from the previous year, yielding a trade surplus of $31.73 billion in June.

Meanwhile, Lian Ping, chief economist with Bank of Communications, said that China's exports will increase 8.4 percent year-on-year in July to $190 billion.

Peng Wensheng, chief economist of China International Capital Corp, said that China's imports in June will grow 11 percent from the previous year.

The General Administration of Customs will release the trade figures on Aug 10.

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