Yangon - Trade between Myanmar and China increased 60 per cent in the past fiscal year, ranking China the second-largest trading partner for the country after Thailand, news reports said Monday.

Trade between Myanmar and China reached 2.4 billion dollars for the year that ended March 31, compared with 1.5 billion the previous fiscal year, Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, said last week in Nanning, China at a summit between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member

"This year, bilateral trade with China accounted for 24 per cent of Myanmar's total trade and trails only Thailand as the biggest trading partner," Thein Sein said at the meeting, according to the Myanmar Times, a weekly newspaper.

Thailand is Myanmar's main market for natural gas exports, the country's leading export earner.

According to Myanmar Commerce Ministry officials, Myanmar has suffered an annual trade deficit with China for years that hit 500 million dollars in fiscal 2007.

The Myanmar-Sino trade deficit for fiscal 2008 would only become available next week, the newspaper said.

"Due to the influx of Chinese consumer goods into the local market, Chinese imports far outweigh our exports," a ministry official said.

China imports mainly raw materials like agricultural produce, fish, timber, gems and minerals from Myanmar while it exports machinery, electronics, processed food and consumer goods to the country. (dpa)