"Although the trade situation in the first quarter will be difficult, China's exports as well as imports will show stable and modest growth," Shen Danyang, the commerce ministry's spokesman, told a regular news conference. Shen added that China's relatively cheap labour and policy incentives would keep exporters competitive and help the world's second-biggest economy achieve its trade growth goals. China aims to increase foreign trade by around 10 percent this year, a much slower pace than 2011, as it faces a "grim" outlook for boosting exports, the official Xinhua news agency reported last week. The customs agency said earlier this month that China's exports and imports grew at their slowest pace in more than two years in December, providing fresh evidence of cooling domestic and global economic conditions that could push Beijing towards a more pro-growth policy stance. The total value of China's imports and exports finished 2011 at an all-time high of $3.6 trillion. But the overall trade surplus shrank to a three-year low of $155 billion from 2010's $183.1 billion.