BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade development is expected to further stabilize and improve in 2018, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

"China's foreign trade continued to stabilize and improve in the first four months this year and the trend will continue through the year," said Gao Feng, the MOC spokesperson.

China's goods exports rose 6.4 percent year-on-year to 4.81 trillion yuan (about 756 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-April period, while imports grew 11.7 percent to 4.3 trillion yuan, resulting in a trade surplus of 506.24 billion yuan, which narrowed by 24.1 percent, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed.

"Growing global demand amid a recovering world economy, as well as China's sound economic fundamentals and supply-side structural reforms, have supported foreign trade," Gao said.

In April, the goods trade surplus shrank by 27 percent to 182.8 billion yuan, as exports rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1.27 trillion yuan, while imports grew 11.6 percent to 1.09 trillion yuan, according to the GAC.

"Trade surplus is not our goal," said Gao, adding the current trade surplus is totally driven by market forces, and trade balance conditions will vary with market changes.

China hoped the development of its foreign trade would not only benefit Chinese people, but also the rest of the world and the global economy, to bring the community with a shared future for mankind even closer, according to the spokesman.