China announced last week Wednesday that its exports have jumped by 46% in February compared to their statistics a year ago. This increase has raised hopes of a large recovery in international trade.

This was the third month in a row where China experienced increases in exports. It is also the country’s fastest growth in three years. The United States, the European Union and Japan were some of the major contributors to this boost in business.

In addition, China’s imports also rose to 45% over the last year, lead by crude oil since many factories boosted their production. The big rise in imports reduced the nation’s trade surplus to a one-year low of $7.6bn (£5bn) for February.

According to some economists, these figures only indicate the country’s recovery is in progress. Tao Wang, the head of China research for UBS Securities, has foreseen that China’s exports will go back to the level of 2008 when they weren’t yet hit by the global financial crisis.

Wang and others also stated that the solid development could increase pressure on China to let its currency float freely. This is because Beijing has kept the yuan at the same level against the US dollar for 18 months in a row in light of helping its exporters.

However, China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan stated that the government is becoming very cautious about easing the exchange rate controls since the present economic landscape of the world is still uncertain.

The figures for February, according to analysts, are actually harder to interpret than the other months because exports continued to increase despite the holiday break, which happens every year but not necessarily on the same date. Also, the comparison with the previous year could be misleading because February 2009 was more of a bleak time for China’s exports and imports.

Nonetheless, an economic research organization said that the current date reflects the remarkable improvement in the trade sector compared to over a year ago.