Statistics show that China's trade balance turned red in March. It's the country's first monthly trade deficit in six years.

According to the customs statistics, the trade deficit reached 7.2 billion US dollars in March, the first since April 2004.

China exported 112 billion US dollars worth of goods and services in March, while the value of imports surged to 119 billion US dollars.

Taking the first three months together, the country's trade volume totaled 618 billion US dollars in the first quarter, up 44 percent year on year.

Zheng Yuesheng, Director Statistics Dep't, GAC, said, "The trade deficit is healthy because it happens when both imports and exports grow rapidly."

The official says the main reason for the trade deficit is that the domestic demand is booming, pushing up the imports of autos and raw materials such as oil.

Zheng said, "China's imports rose by more than 60 percent in the first quarter, boosting global trade by more than 100 billion US dollars. It is an import force supporting balanced global economic growth."

Zheng however says he expects the deficit to be temporary.

Zheng said, "In the long term, our economic structure results in a trade surplus. However, the scale of the surplus gradually fall as the demand for imports exceeds exports."

Data shows China posted a trade surplus of 14.5 billion US dollars in the first quarter, down 77 percent on the same period last year.