China's trade surplus jumped to US$23.8 billion in October, 27% above the previous monthly record of US$18.8 billion recorded in August, as export growth outstripped imports, official customs figures show. Exports totaled $88.1 billion in October, up 29.6% from the same month last year, while imports grew 14.7% year-on-year to US$64.3 billion. Export growth was similar to September's 30.6%, but import growth for October was well down on the 22% recorded the previous month. The reason for the change wasn't immediately clear, but China's campaign to cool off a boom in investment could be causing a drop in purchases of foreign factory equipment and other capital goods, AP reported. China's trade surplus set record monthly highs in May, June, July and August before briefly dropping back to $15.3 billion in September.The trade surplus for the first 10 months of the year is worth US$133.6 billion, already exceeding the US$102 billion surplus for all of 2005.