BEIJING - CHINA'S peak period for exporting Christmas presents has taken a heavy hit this year amid the global economic crisis, with growth in the industry down nearly 40 per cent, state press reported on Thursday.

China exported $1.28 billion (S$1.83 billion) of Christmas-related products from July to October, up 3.6 per cent over the same period in 2007, but the growth was down 38.9 percentage points year-on-year, Xinhua news agency said.

The four month period has traditionally been the peak period for exports of Chinese-made Christmas products, the report said.

From January to October, Christmas-related exports totalled $1.64 billion, up 8.3 per cent year-on-year, but down 32 percentage points from the same period in 2007, it said, citing the customs administration.

The report did not detail what exactly constitutes a 'Christmas-related export', so it was not clear if electronics, clothes, toys, or other products that could be given as Christmas presents were included in the figures.

The United States and the European Union continued to be the major markets for China's Christmas exports with the two regions accounting for 77 per cent of such products during the first 10 months of the year, it said.

The overall value of Chinese exports slipped 2.2 per cent in November, marking the first year-on-year drop since June 2001, the government said last week.

Despite the slowdown, China's trade surplus is likely to hit another record in 2008, the nation's economic planning agency said on Wednesday.

'We expect... the full-year trade surplus to exceed 280 billion dollars, an increase of 18 billion dollars from 2007,' the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website. -- AFP