China's trade surplus is likely to break through the US$250 billion barrier this year, while full-year inflation is on course to top 4%, AFP reported, citing state media. Yi Gang, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China, identified the trade surplus and inflation as the major problems facing the country's economy. "To tackle the problems, we cannot solely rely on adjustments of the exchange rate," he added. China's trade surplus came to US$185.7 billion in the first nine months of the year, already more than the record US$177.5 billion for the whole of 2006. Meanwhile, the country's consumer price index rose 6.5% in August from a year earlier, propelled by rising food costs. It was up 3.9% for the first eight months of the year. Yi advocated resolving the imbalance by boosting domestic consumption, increasing imports and encouraging outbound investment.