Chile reported a record trade surplus of 2.34 billion U.S. dollars in May, more than four times its figure in May 2005, the central bank said Wednesday.

The high prices of copper, the country's largest export, is the main reason for the massive growth, a central bank statement said.

Chile's May exports totaled 5.535 billion dollars, while imports were 3.196 billion dollars. Exports rose 76.5 percent year on year while imports rose 24.8 percent.

In the year to May, Chile's trade surplus, with exports of 22.137 billion dollars and imports 13.867 billion, totaled 8.27 billion dollars, nearly double the 4.29-billion-dollar surplus of the same period in 2005.

The central bank said this represented a rise of 38.2 percent in exports and 18.3 percent in imports.

The country's Monetary Policy Agency forecast in a report released on May 18 that Chile would have a 17-billion-dollar trade surplus over the whole year of 2006, on sales of 51.9 billion dollars and imports of 34.9 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua