China's trade surplus came to $96.2 billion in April, down from $102.64 billion in March, beating expectations, the country's General Administration of Customs said in its report published on Friday.

Exports increased by 8.1% compared to the same month in the previous year. Meanwhile, imports dropped by 0.2% year-on-year.

In local currency, the trade surplus came in at 689.99 billion yuan against last month's surplus of 736.72 billion yuan. Exports saw an annual increase of 9.3%, while imports rose by 0.8%.