China saw a trade deficit of 1.02 billion US dollars between January and March this year. It's the first quarterly trade deficit in six years, according to figures released Sunday by the General Administration of Customs.

China has reported a trade deficit of 1.02 billion US dollars from January to March this year.

In comparison, the country gained a trade surplus of 13.91 billion US dollars in the first quarter of last year.

But the General Administration of Customs says trade remained strong in this year's first quarter, with total volume topping more than 800 billion US dollars, an increase of nearly 30 percent year-on-year.

Exports increased by 26 percent to nearly 400 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, imports soared to more than 400 billion US dollars, growing by 32 percent year-on-year.

Officials say the figure also shows the Japanese earthquake is impacting its exports to China. Though China continues to import more Japanese products, the growth rate is far below the monthly import growth rate.

Zheng Yuesheng, Director of Department of Statistics, GAC said Japan is one of China's largest trade partners. The earthquake has forced much of its production to stop. And its exports to China are shrinking, especially in automobile parts.

Officials say fewer imports of electronic parts from Japan will affect China's production of automobiles, computers and other electronic products, and hence its exports to the rest of the world.